Credit guarantee line from PhilGuarantee hit P 655B in 2020

State-run Philippine Guarantee Corp. (PhilGuarantee) has extended more than P655 billion in credit guarantee lines in 2020 to support struggling businesses and sectors amid a prolonged pandemic, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

In a statement on Saturday, the DOF quoted PhilGuarantee president and chief executive Alberto Pascual as saying that the agency had guaranteed P180.67 billion in loans last year or 8 percent more than its P167.21-billion target.

To aid micro, small and medium enterprises badly hit by the pandemic-induced recession, PhilGuarantee extended P37.73 billion across 34 banks nationwide so they could sustain lending to MSMEs, Pascual reported to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who chairs the agency.

“The [MSME credit guarantee] program will be extended until September this year to provide continuing support to affected MSMEs via available access to working capital loans under credit-risk sharing arrangements with accredited banks,” Pascual said.

“A total of 2,943 new MSME beneficiaries were served under this program, which, as of December 2020, provided guarantees to loans totaling P175.1 million. The number of MSME-beneficiaries is expected to increase in January 2021,” he added.

Besides its coverage of small businesses, PhilGuarantee also continued to provide guarantees to housing loans, agriculture-related lending, as well as electric cooperative borrowings.

“In partnership with local government units and cooperatives, [PhilGuarantee] has also supported the credit surety fund which will allow it to invest equity to guarantee cooperative loans,” according to Pascual.

The Department of Budget and Management this month released the national government’s additional P5-billion equity contribution to PhilGuarantee for its programs under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.

Pascual said PhilGuarantee would relaunch the program extending a maximum guarantee cover of up to P300 million per borrower, including to large enterprises in “critically impacted” industries like trade, transportation, and tourism.

“It is an existing program but we gave focus to MSMEs because of the pandemic,” he had explained. —Ben O. de Vera INQ