Philippines Remains Microfinance Leader in Asia
LONDON — The Philippines scores the third best in the world and maintained its rank as the microfinance leader in Asia, according to the global business magazine Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
In the EIU’s Global Microscope 2015, among the 55 countries the Philippines got a score of 81, which was the Asia’s best and ranked 3rd in the world, next to Peru’s 90 and Columbia’s 86.
Rounding out the top 10 were India which was placed fourth with a score of 71, followed by Pakistan with 64, Chile with 62, Tanzania with 62, Bolivia with 60, Mexico with 60, and Ghana with 60 score.
Haiti was ranked last with a score of 24.
The EIU said in the report,
The Philippines continues to achieve considerable local and global milestones in its pursuit of financial inclusion, owing to the country’s success in terms of the variety of players, which provides a wide range of financial services and products to the public.
The countries were ranked based on 12 indicators. In which a unit of global business magazine, the Economist, said the Philippines attained the perfect scores in 5 indicators including government support, regulation and supervisory capacity, deposit taking activities, branches and gents, and dispute resolutions.
It highlighted the signing last July of the recently launched National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI), which was developed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the 13 government Agencies.
The strategy establishes a framework and action plan for the government and the private sector to take a coordinated and systematic approach to the development of a financial system that is accessible and responsive to the needs of the entire population,
the EIU explained.
According to the EIU’s the BSP’s financial inclusion strategy have increased the opportunities for partnership with the private sectors, especially in the area if technological innovation.
In terms of financial capability, the BSP implements economic and financial-education programs to reach audiences in targeted areas, as well as public information campaigns, financial-education sessions for Filipinos overseas and their beneficiaries, financial-education exhibitions and financial-empowerment sessions,
EIU said.
