The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has formed a committee to look into the activities of financing companies and to determine whether those involved primarily in direct lending should be placed under the jurisdiction of another government agency.
In an interview, SEC chair Lilia Bautista said that since the commission had required lending investors to convert into financing companies, the number of financing firms had ballooned to about 400.
With the huge number of registered financing companies, Bautista said the commission wanted to see if most of the companies were into direct lending or into factoring or rediscounting, the traditional function of a finance company.
Bautista said the committee would also determine whether the finance companies, especially those in direct lending, were getting their funds from more than 19 lenders. "If they are, then maybe they should be licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as quasi-banks," she said.
