Surety fund helps MSMEs gain access to bank loans

With the Cebu Credit Surety Fund (CCSF), its member-small enterprises possess the power to open the doors of banks and access funds for growth and expansion.

“Now you don't have to let business opportunities pass you by because you have access to funds,” Kristine Mateo of the Industrial Guarantee and Loan Fund (IGLF), a partner institution of CCSF, told the CCSF officers led by CCSF president Reynaldo Gandionco before the surety fund's eighth anniversary.

The IGLF is a lending facility helping micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) with their credit needs. It is national in scope.

“It is owned by the National Government through the National Economic and Development Authority. Fund administration has been with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) since 1990, transferred from the then Central Bank of the Philippines (now Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP),” Mateo said.

She said that from 1990 to December 2016, the total IGLF availments reached nearly P58 billion.

“We see this as an excellent opportunity to affirm government's deepening relationship with cooperatives, and micro, small and medium enterprises,” Mateo said of the CCSF.

The CCSF was organized eight years ago by the BSP through the pooling of contributions of cooperatives, the Cebu City Government, Land Bank of the Philippines, DBP, IGLF, and later, the Province of Cebu, with the goal of increasing the creditworthiness of MSMEs that have difficulty obtaining loans due to the lack of collateral.

The CCSF mitigates the credit risk of banks extending credit to MSMEs. /