Banks gain access to SMEs via portal

Online portal Loanpinas.com gives local banks now have an easier way to lend to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines.

The first of its kind in the country, the business-to-business portal provides banks access to a database of more than 300,000 businesses in the Philippines.

“The database will be made available to banks and other lending institutions which will subscribe to Loanpinas.com,” said Vic dela Dingco, executive director of FINEX Foundation for Entrepreneurship Inc. (FFEI).

Through the portal, SMEs could register and post their loan requests online that could be viewed by various participating lenders. The lenders could directly offer their loan products and discuss the terms with the potential SME borrower.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) partnered with the SME arm of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) in 2012 to launch SMEplus.com.

The trade department pro- vided the registry of 20,000 SMEs. The partnership has undergone major changes to suit the needs of lenders and SMEs alike.

“Through the Loanpinas.com portal, we aim to help address the number one challenge that SMEs in the country face: access to finance. Beyond that, we also hope to provide SMEs access to education and access to the markets,” FFEI chairman Tomas Gomez IV said.

FFEI partnered with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Philippines to enhance the SME experience in getting loans.

The portal offers several technology features including a one-click loan request straight to the member banks, a single repository of company documents which could be accessed anytime, anywhere as well as access to market for premium members.

Through the reciprocity features between Loanpinas.com and VIA, a premium member of Loanpinas automatically becomes a premium vendor of VIA.

This gives them opportunities to be prequalified to VIA buyers, access to preferential prequalification rates, and listing on D&B’s global database of DUNS-registered companies.

VIA is the online platform used by 54 of the country’s top conglomerates in prequalifying their suppliers.

In addition to providing access to credit, Loanpinasregistered SMEs could also take advantage of the expertise of over 700 SME mentors who will come from FINEX, the premier organization of finance executives and business professionals in the country.

During the formal launch of Loanpinas.com and iSME.ph, FFEI also entered into a memorandum of cooperation with PLDT SME Nation to undertake joint initiatives that would drive the growth of SMEs.