THE HOUSE Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries approved a proposed law that will boost rural lenders in the Philippines.
In a hearing on Friday, the committee approved with amendments the Consolidated Bill and the Committee Report on House Bills 4256, 4622, 5143, and 8359 or the proposed Rural Banking Act of 2021.
The bill and report were products of the panel’s technical working group headed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The measure will still be up for amendments after committee member Lanao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Abdullah D. Dimaporo said the system must focus on making the banks accessible and suitable for the poor.
“I don’t like this bill because banks should be catering to the people. If we think of how to make them successful, to me that is different because a rural bank is for the smaller people, the poor. The bigger banks, I doubt the farmers and fishermen will feel easy into a foreign-owned bank that will be curated with depositors with money,” Mr. Dimaporo said.
“The purpose of the rural bank is to cater to the smaller people who are in the rural areas… The rural banks are mostly established and some of them experience where they are, their places are becoming a big population and big cities and rural banks in those places would like to be big, they will apply to the central bank to become a commercial bank,” he added.
The panel’s chair, Quirino Rep. Junie E. Cua said while he agrees with the concerns of Mr. Dimaporo, the bill will boost the viability of the rural banks to help them cater to the unbanked and underbanked.