The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has entered into a new partnership with Security Bank Corp. aimed at expanding access to supply-chain financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines. In a statement on Tuesday, May 12, the ADB said it signed a risk participation agreement (RPA)...
Tonik, the holder of BSP Digital Banking License No. 001 and the Philippines’ first standalone digital bank, has reached a defining milestone: sustained profitability. The company generated consolidated positive cash net income (after all costs including cost of risk) in Q1 2026, becoming the...
Lending by big banks, or universal and commercial banks (U/KBs), closed the first quarter on an upbeat note as it accelerated to a seven-month high in March, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). This came as the sector provided “even stronger support for the production activities...
International Finance Corp. (IFC) has approved its planned investments in two private equity (PE) funds that are eyeing investments in the Philippines and the broader Southeast Asian region. In disclosures last May 7 and April 24, respectively, the World Bank Group’s (WBG) private-sector lending...
The research arm of Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank sees a “ super ” El Niño developing from this month until July, threatening to further accelerate the surge in Philippine consumer prices already aggravated by the Middle East war. Deutsche Bank Research hiked its inflation assumption for...
Zobel-led conglomerate Ayala Corp. has secured its first Singapore dollar-hedged loan through a $100 million (or Singapore dollar equivalent) sustainability-linked facility with DBS Bank Ltd. In a statement on Monday, May 11, Ayala said the facility further diversifies its funding sources while...
The World Bank has canceled part of the loans for the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) while as project scope was pared down with only five months left before its financing closes. A May 8 restructuring paper seen by Manila Bulletin showed that the Washington-based multilateral lender, effective Jan....
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will mobilize $30 billion by 2030 to help the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) strengthen long-term development priorities and withstand external economic shocks. ADB president Masato Kanda announced the commitment during the 48th ASEAN Summit in Cebu...
Microfinance lender BPI Direct BanKo Inc., A Savings Bank (BanKo), the microfinance arm of Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), is spotlighting the growing role of Filipino mothers in driving grassroots entrepreneurship and local economic activity. Among them is Madelyn Nayre of Barangay...
The Philippine central bank faces an intensifying divide among private-sector economists over the trajectory of borrowing costs, with a lone dissenting voice branding recent monetary tightening as “misguided” following the sharp slowdown in economic output. While a majority of analysts maintain...
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the World Bank Group’s (WBG) arm that extends political risk insurance to both private-sector investors and lenders, has renewed its cooperation agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support investments and job creation across...
Samarkand, UZBEKISTAN — Amid comparisons by some local firms claiming that the ongoing oil crisis triggered by the conflict in the Middle East is hurting their business operations more severely than the Covid-19 pandemic, economists from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the broader...
