SBC, DAP ink deal for loan officers certification program

CEBU, Philippines - State-owned Small Business Corp. (SBC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) for the development of a certification program for loan officers of financial institutions.

The program is part of the institution’s mission to assist loan officers of financial institutions like banks in loan assessment and evaluation, loan approval, credit review and risk-management, according to a statement.

The partnership is also the start of an accreditation program whereby loan officers can be certified as professional small and medium enterprise (SME) credit specialists. This will also bring about the development and institutionalization of a set of review curricula and course offerings for a Diploma on Risk-based SME Credit Specialist Course.

This certification program will complement SBC’s efforts to enable participating financial institutions to develop credit risk management systems and risk rating models in the assessment of small business loans.

SBC Visayas Office manager Cesar Antoni earlier said the Financial Institution Development group of SBC has started training rural banks in Cebu with the technology of SME-risk-based lending with the aim of encouraging them to migrate to this system from the traditional collateral-based lending, wherein most micro and small companies find hard to qualify due to the absence of collateral.

Called the “Consultancy Program on SME Risk-Based lending,” the capacity building program is a partnership with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines , wherein selected RBAP members are provided consultancy services to transfer the technology on risk-based lending to the bank’s management and lending units.

The long-term goal of the program is to set up a credit information sharing system among rural banks on risk-rated SME borrowers. This is similar to a credit bureau to be managed by a host-agency and will be accessed fee-based.