MABS Holds 5th National Roundtable Conference
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The Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Program held its 5th National Roundtable (NRT) Conference at the Manila Hotel on June 12-13. Over one hundred-fifty participants - comprising 111 rural bankers from 49 MABS participating banks (PBs); representatives from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDCo), Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP), Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), Microfinance Council of the Philippines, GXchange (GXI), Bank of the Philippine Islands; and MABS and Rural Banker 2000 service providers attended the conference.
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The two-day conference, with the theme Pushing the Frontiers of Microfinance through Innovation, focused on the microfinance innovations developed by the Program and its partners and its impact on microfinance operations.
Cantilan Bank and 1st Valley Bank shared their experiences in implementing mobile phone banking applications. In 2004, MABS started developing mobile phone-based services to give PBs’ clients more convenient, affordable, and secure modes of repaying microloans (Text-A-Payment); making deposits and withdrawals (Text-A-Deposit and Text-A-Withdrawal); paying bills, goods and services; and sending money. All applications use GXI’s electronic money platform, GCash. The new mobile phone banking website (www.mobilephonebanking.rbap.org) - an online resource for mobile phone banking services and directory of accredited banks and merchants offering mobile phone banking services – was also launched during the conference.
Scott Gaul, MIX lead analyst, highlighted the importance of adhering to international and microfinance industry-specific financial reporting requirement and presented how banks can utilize data from financial reports in their operational and strategic planning. Valiant Bank, the first Philippine rural bank to be receive a Merit Recognition in the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor’s (CGAP)’s Financial Transparency Awards, gave a first-hand account of how transparency in financial reporting and benchmarking contributes to organizational strengthening.
Microfinance industry leaders gave an analysis of the factors and trends influencing the future of Philippine microfinance, the challenges that the industry will face, and their recommendations for effectively responding to the challenges and remaining competitive.
Officers of top-performing participating banks shared the management strategies and best practices that worked for their organizations. Officers of the Rural Bank of Mabitac and the Rural Bank of Guinobatan - banks that were affected by recent natural disasters - shared their post-disaster recovery measures and highlighted the importance of having an updated disaster and contingency plan.
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