The Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) is eyeing a strong double-digit growth in its small and medium enterprise (SME) lending operations, as the positive effects of the country’s economic expansion trickle down to small businesses in the countryside.
Metrobank Senior Vice President (SVP) and Business Banking Center Head Godofredo Cruz said they expect robust growth in SME lending, where they have accumulated P10-billion outstanding loans thus far.
“We started our SME lending two years ago. Now we’ve grown our accounts to 4,000. Coming from a low base, we see a double-digit growth in SME loans,” he said at a recent news conference.
Of the lender’s P740-billion loan book, 72 percent were commercial-banking loans that included loans to SMEs.
Metrobank SVP Jette Gamboa said the bank’s general direction is to grow its lending business by 18 percent this year.
“Our SME lending is expected to grow faster than that,” Gamboa said.
The minimum loan amount for SME clients is P1 million. Those with small financing requirements are referred to Metrobank’s consumer-banking arm, the Philippine Savings Bank.
Cruz said the SME market is huge, as 99.6 percent of 800,000 registered businesses are SMEs.
Cruz, who has been scouring even the remotest areas in provinces, said the potential to grow SME lending is very large, indeed, particularly in agriculture and franchising.
Metrobank also provides puhunan loans, or start-up capital, for new graduates and for overseas Filipinos in setting up their own business.
“All the companies are expanding, and this is driving the growth of SMEs that serve as suppliers to the big ones. These SMEs are into contract farming, aqua culture and franchising of food business, like Waffle, 7-Eleven and also Generika drugstore, just to name a few” he told reporters.