MANILA, Philippines - The 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Financial Institutions Dealing with Small and Medium Enterprises (APEC SME) will be held in the Philippines. The Planters Development Bank (Plantersbank) will be the host bank. The APEC SME Summit is a yearly gathering of financial institutions in the region to exchange views on topics related to SME finance, and to establish a cooperation system among the APEC SME members in order to support SMEs in the APEC region. According to the memorandum of understanding signed by the members, the specific areas of cooperation are in the financial as well as technical areas. Currently, the APEC Financial Institutions Dealing with SMEs has 13 financial institution members from 11 APEC-member countries and economies. The members are the China Development Bank, the Bank of China (Hongkong), the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC), the Standard Chartered Bank (Hongkong), the Japan Finance Corp., the Industrial Bank of Korea, the Association of Banks in Malaysia, the Nacional Financiera SNC, the Association of Banks in Singapore, the Taiwan Cooperative Bank, the SME Development Bank of Thailand, the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade – Vietin Bank, and Plantersbank.