Credit data, benchmarking to help SMEs

CREDIT INFORMATION and industry benchmarking can be beneficial for small and medium enterprises (SME) as these can help them obtain access to lending and assess their performance against other industry players, CIBI Information, Inc. said.

In an interview, CIBI President and Chief Executive Officer Marlo R. Cruz said small businesses can grow with the help of credit information.

“SMEs will definitely be able to gain a lot of ground now. With credit information, SMEs will gain because they will [now have access to] banking and credit,” Mr. Cruz told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of Philippine Credit Forum held in Taguig City last week.

Through credit information, Mr. Cruz said banks and other lending institutions can assess the capability of SMEs to meet their financial obligations, enabling them to borrow capital and grow their businesses.

“Lending institutions does not want to deal with SMEs simply for one reason: they do not have any information about them. When banks have information about them, it gives them knowledge to make better decisions.”

Mr. Cruz added that industry benchmarking can be a useful tool for small businesses to assess their performance against other firms.

“Benchmarking can help them know how they are performing vis-a-vis their competitors. This gives them a chance to plan their direction in the short- and longterm,” Mr. Cruz said.

“It gives you a wider perspective on how the industry and the economy in general is performing,” he explained. “You can align yourself and be able to adapt and adjust to the current market trends and therefore become a better organization.”

CIBI was established in 1982 by then-Central Bank of the Philippines, Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines to collate, develop and analyze credit information of individuals and businesses. It was transformed as a private entity in 1997.

CIBI is one of the four special accessing entities (SAEs) accredited by the state-run Credit Information Corp. (CIC), the country’s credit information registry. SAEs are authorized to access credit information being kept by the CIC. •