Consumer finance platform Billease has secured a ₱1-billion credit facility from Philippine National Bank (PNB), adding another major local bank to its funding base as it scales up its lending business.

Billease’s first with PNB, the facility uses the Personal Property Security Registry (PPSR), giving the bank a registered first-rank claim over a pool of Billease’s consumer loan receivables.

Billease said in an Aug. 20 statement that the deal reflects growing confidence among major domestic banks in lending against consumer finance receivables, while helping the company expand its local funding base as it grows.

AlphaPrimus Advisors acted as transaction adviser for the facility.

Under the arrangement, Billease pledges a pool of consumer loans as collateral, with the value of the receivables exceeding the amount borrowed. The collateral pool is regularly refreshed as loans are repaid or fall behind, with new loans added to the pool.

Customer repayments from loans tied to the PNB facility are also subject to a set payment priority, with the PNB facility paid first.

This structure allows PNB to gain exposure to retail consumer credit while spreading risk across a large number of small borrowers with short-term loans, Billease said.

“Billease has demonstrated strong portfolio quality across different market cycles. This track record gave us confidence to establish this relationship at a meaningful scale,” PNB Executive Vice President and Head of Institutional Banking Sector Roberto Fo. Abastillas said.

“We see this as the beginning of a broader partnership and look forward to exploring additional opportunities to work together,” he added.

The new funding facility comes as Billease continues to expand its loan book and improve profitability. Billease’s revenue grew more than 80 percent to ₱8.7 billion in 2025, while net profit reached ₱782 million, marking its third consecutive year of profitability.

Its gross loan book likewise expanded more than 77 percent to about ₱12.5 billion, while total assets reached ₱13.7 billion.

Billease said it now onboards more than 200,000 new customers and disburses more than ₱5 billion in loans each month.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, the company had about ₱6.4 billion in consolidated equity against ₱7.1 billion in total borrowings, resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of roughly 1:1 and leaving room for additional debt facilities, it said.

“We are deliberately expanding our local funding base here at home, with the country’s leading banks, because that allows us to keep serving more Filipinos with affordable, responsible credit,” Billease co-founder and CEO Georg Steiger said.

“PNB coming on board is a strong signal—it says the largest institutions in the market are ready to fund this kind of lending when it is done with discipline,” he added.

The PNB facility forms part of Billease’s strategy to increasingly fund its growth through local lenders, complementing its existing roster of local and international funding partners.

The firm’s expansion of its local funding base also comes alongside its entry into banking following its acquisition of a rural bank, which Billease said is expected to broaden the products it can offer, including savings and deposits, while improving its funding profile and cost of capital. (Derco Rosal)