Government-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) has opened a P1-billion lending facility for rural, thrift and cooperative banks’ digitalization program.

Landbank president and CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo said the new lending program, called Digitalization of Countryside Financial Institutions (DIGI-CFI) will help the rural and thrift banking sector to be “resilient and relevant” amid the digital banking age.
Borromeo said Landbank will “boost the capacity of rural banks to contribute to the digitalization wave” and that “the possiblities for growth are endless, with the end goal of promoting financial inclusion and providing innovative and responsive digital financial services.” She announced the new lending program during a recent Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines event in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Landbank said DIGI-CFI lending program will “empower CFIs to digitalize their banking operations to reach and service more underserved and unbanked Filipinos”.
The government bank through the program will finance digitalization projects such as payment for subscription or licensing fee for commercial software or outsource information technology systems.
Rural, thrift and cooperative banks approved for the financing program will also get the funds for the acquisition of hardware or computer equipment and purchase or development of commercial software, application, or system, including maintenance and support, said Landbank.
Under the DIGI-CFI lending program, small banks can borrow up to 80 percent of their total project cost with an interest rate of five percent per year for term loans, fixed for the first year and subject to re-pricing thereafter, said the bank. The loan is payable up to five years.
As of end-April, Landbank has some P9.66 billion outstanding loans in support of 88 rural financial institutions nationwide.