RBs want longer RBAP life

Last month, 408 out of 520 representative rural banks, or 70 percent of the federations of rural banks nationwide has categorically declared their desire for another 50 corporate years for the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP). The RBAP corporate life ends in August 2007.

During the two-day special general membership meeting and 2006 national management conference held end November, RBAP members affirmed their confidence in the association.

Keynote speaker Sen. Edgardo J. Angara declared his unilateral support for the evolution of rural banks to become community banks equipped with flexibility to compete in the global arena in the next 50 years.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla said the BSP will continue to liberalize the rural banking sector in the direction of strengthening its core competencies of providing a broader array of products and services for the rural clientele as well as giving rural banks access to tap into the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) remittance business for the benefit of the rural communities.

In technology, G-Xchange president Rizza Maniego-Eala boosted that Globe G-Cash benefits micro-borrowers. She identified the increasing uses of mobile banking like RBAP Text-A-Payment and, soon, Text-A-Deposit.

Not to be outdone, PLDT senior vice president Ernesto R. Alberto expounded on the tremendous impact of telecommunications in countryside development. His presentation also featured the services of ENCASH/NCR, telecom service providers of PLDT.

RBAP is currently firming up an arrangement with PLDT for the introduction of SMART Padala, a domestic money transfer service, among rural banks.

AID-supported RBAP-Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) program, provided banks with an update of the successful effort of rural banks which have become the new innovative leaders of microfinance in the Philippines.

Institutional support for micro-finance in the form of financial assistance to fund its further propagation in the rural banking sector, specially the MABS program, was discussed by Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI) vice president Josaias T. de la Cruz and Ann J. Miles, a director of BlueOrchard Finance S.A.