MANILA, Philippines - A six-man delegation from the Central Bank of Yemen visited the Philippines early this month to study the country’s microfinance industry. The delegation visited the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),
Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines-Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (RBAP-MABS), GM Bank, and the Land Bank of the Philippines. The study mission provided the delegates with the opportunity to learn about the country’s microfinance sector, enabling regulatory environment that encouraged the growth of private microfinance, and microfinance supervision methodologies and practices.
The delegation also visited a rural bank in the field. Specifically, the delegates were interested in lending methodologies, IT systems, internal controls, reporting, and technological innovations such as mobile phone banking.
Likewise, RBAP-MABS provided the bankers with an overview of the MABS program and its initiatives and discussed how the private microfinance industry has achieved success in the Philippines over the last decade.