Microfinance advocates forge alliance

MANILA, Philippines – Three of the biggest advocates of microfinance got together to craft a code for the protection of microentrepreneurs.

The Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP), Microfinance Council of the Philippines Inc. (MCPI) and ACCION International signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) recently to work together in protecting the rights and welfare of financial institutions’ microfinance clients.

The accord formalizes the cooperation between the three organizations to undertake the “Beyond Codes” action research project.

This project aims to collect information on the consumer protection codes of conduct and their implementation in selected countries, including the Philippines. Through these information and experiences, a consensus of consumer-friendly best practices will be developed, and promoted worldwide.

ACCION International is a private non-profit organization, which aims to provide financial assistance to the poor who want to work their way out of poverty. With 35 partner microfinance organizations in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean, ACCION already loaned more than $23.4 billion to over 6.2 million people since 1998.

As a microfinance organization, ACCION also provides business trainings and financial services to poor people, helping them start their own businesses and move up the economic ladder.

The Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) program will implement the project for RBAP.

Supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the MABS program assists rural banks in developing their capacity to profitably provide banking services to microentrepreneurs.

Since 1999, MABS-participating rural banks disbursed over P23.4 billion to more than 610,000 microenterprise borrowers. The same banks have also provided deposit services to more than 1.4 million micro-depositors with total outstanding deposits of more than P1.8 billion.

The MCPI is a network of 45 institutions working towards the rapid development of the microfinance industry in the Philippines. These institutions include non-government organizations (NGOs), microfinance-oriented rural banks, and a thrift bank.