Licking the PAR Problem

Cecile Tanael is the president of Rural Bank of Mabitac, which has been providing microfinance services in Laguna and Quezon provinces since 1974. The bank joined the MABS microfinance capacity building program in 2003. This helped the bank develop their KABALIKAT microloan product and reduce delinquency rates. Some factors that helped keep delinquency low included sound credit policies for client selection and loan appraisal, frequent backups of data, restructuring loans when necessary, writing off hard loans, and maintaining financial stability. The bank has seen steady growth between 2003 and 2008 in areas such as number of branches, staff, assets, portfolio size, deposits, income, and net worth.