With strict policies set by banks and other lending institutions before it would grant loans, a non-government organization has strengthened its program that aims to provide access to credit to small- and medium- enterprises (SMEs) in the countryside directly from the qualified intermediary financial institutions.
The Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), through its Small and Medium Enterprise Credit (Smec) program established in 1989, has been extending loans to SMEs borrowers through its accredited intermediary financial institutions, specifically thrift banks or rural banks.
Smec is a wholesale lending program using thrift banks and rural banks as conduits of funds provided by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (Usaid) and a bilateral loan from the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KFW) of the Federal Republic of Germany.
