Recent advances in internet-based financial services have so far made it possible for SMEs and other unbanked sectors of society to make payments via text messaging. But their credit access to banks remains elusive.
To find ways of enhancing SME access to the full benefits of internet banking, CSRSME Asia will team-up with BDO, the country’s largest bank, and the Shared Vision Cooperative of SMEs to create the Bayanihan Cash Card (BaCC), a debit card that will connect SMEs and their clients with BDO’s ATM, mobile phone, point of sale facilities and automatic financial statement generation.
The approach is innovative firstly because it targets socially responsible SMEs or social enterprises with the triple bottom line of economic sustainability, social development, and ecological conservation.
Secondly, it allows social enterprises to strengthen their supply chains with the development of a financial intermediation system that will mobilize savings and provide financing for production and marketing of local products.
Finally, the project hints at a framework for participatory local development that increases the benefits of all stakeholders including small producers, consumers, wholesalers, trading/auction centers, retail distribution centers, vendors, banks, social enterprises, NGOs, and local government units.
