New
milestones in banking – can awards criteria be better?
Will
inclusive banking better serve inclusive development?
Dear Editor-in-Chief of Philippine Daily Inquirer,
Thank you for ‘Top of the
banking heap’ written by your staff, Sept. 15th, 2013. Cheers for writing a
winning piece, about an award-winning bank, in a regional competition using
criteria that make banks the winners in the race toward inclusive and
sustainable progress. A toast to BDO for besting other perennial winners like
mega banks DBS and HSBC.
It is truly a milestone to be proud of when one of our banks
outperforms bigger and older institutions beyond national horizons. Your report
that the award reflects the rise in fortunes of the country is heart warming
and makes us see the improvement in the country’s credit rating as not just a
notion and a benchmark, but as a tool that can actually lead to more meaningful
inclusive development.
New Milestones: New Wineskins
for New Wine
BSP, good shepherd and excellent gatekeeper, has kept the banking
industry as strong, robust, resilient and successful as ever. It has advanced
and preserved the strength of banks for so long, as this award shows. Is it
time for fresh milestones in banking excellence? If banks are winners should
not the victory belong to the customer?
WAWD thinks it could be time to shift from just keeping banks strong to
making their consumers stronger as well. In the spirit of inclusive development
for banks and their clients we make a humble challenge for PDI to sponsor and take
a lead in granting awards that are based on new set of criteria that focus and
connect with the bank customer rather than just the banks. If FinanceAsia can
do it, why shouldn’t PDI be able to do it better with new set of criteria which
WAWD suggests can include:
1.
In addition to loan-to-asset values and ratios,
MSME loans-to-asset values and ratios;
2.
Loan portfolio classified and differentiated as
to MSME borrowers and non-MSME borrowers;
3.
Loan portfolio broken down as to size, such as
micro, small, large and mega;
4.
Net interest margin for MSMEs compared to NIM
for non-MSMEs;
5.
Bank products geared for MSMEs;
6.
Loan portfolio granted by Head Office and by
Provincial Branches and the % of branch deposits to branch loans; are the bank
branches net deposit takers or net loan providers or do branches contribute to
local development or siphon it?
7.
Compliance with R.A. 9501 or the Magna Carta for
MSMEs.
I bet you it will be great fun
to see these numbers officially and publicly revealed for the first time! I’m
sure you would be able to add more criteria that can point out that the banking
industry will thrive more and the bank consumers are served in more and better
ways by serving the smaller sized segment some more. The same issue reports
that Philexport, for one, has made studies that show there is more beneficial
impact to the economy when the MSMEs are served as they should be and the
consumers in the provincial areas are served more. How so? That is another
story that WAWD can tell some other time.
For now we encourage and challenge you to spearhead this competition
and awards and we will help as much as we can. This can even be the start of a movement with more social and news impact
than Pork. I’m sure you have your resources to use in responding to the challenge
and making it a viable value proposition.
Or you can always outsource!
Cheers and may you be more than conquerors in your daily quest for
truth and progress!
Bob Calida
We Also Walk Dogs
Asian Solutions Provider Inc.
Asian College
Cc: Ms. Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez
President,
PDI
BSP Gov. Armando Tetangco
PHILEXPORT
