MANILA, Feb 19 (NNN-PNA) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today said, it will provide grants totalling 655,000 U.S. dollars for the digitisation of nine rural banks and a bank consortium in the Philippines.
The grants are part of ADB’s Fintech for Inclusion Transformation (FIT) programme.
The grant awardees were chosen from among rural banks nationwide, serving women, farmers, fisherfolk, and micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, which submitted their digital transformation proposals following the programme’s launch in Jun, 2023.
The grant awardees should achieve more efficiency in operations, reduce operational expenses and friction costs, expand their reach, improve customer service, and build more resilient financial institutions. Some digital transformation proposals involve creating cloud-based core banking systems, loan origination systems, and credit scoring systems.
The FIT programme supports government reforms to expand Filipinos’ access to financial services, especially the unbanked population segment. The reforms are linked to the government’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion.– NNN-PNA
