Cantilan Bank is 30 years old

MANILA, Philippines - Cantilan Bank, a progressive rural bank based in Surigao, has celebrated its 30th anniversary on a high note. From just three branches and 35 employees in 1999, it expanded to 12 branches and 260 employees. Its loan portfolio grew from P50 million to P652 million in the same period.

The number of microfinance borrowers accounts for 39 percent of Cantilan’s total borrowers with a client base of over 8,400 microentrepreneurs, small farmers, and storeowners.

Today, deposit accounts numbers 58,522 with P524 million in deposits. More importantly, there are three depositors to every borrower, and voluntary savings by micro-depositors comprise 50 percent of total microloans outstanding.

It is the first rural bank in the province to establish an automated teller machine (ATM) network, to embrace mobile phone banking services, and to participate in the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines-Microentrepreneurs Access to Banking Services (RBAP-MABS) program.

More significantly, Cantilan progressed from a fourth class municipality to a second-class municipality, a ranking based on the collective annual income of the town. The growth of the bank facilitated Cantilan’s economic development and provided a better life to the citizens of the region.