State-run Development Bank of the Philippines, the eighth-largest lender in terms of assets, extended a P2-billion revolving fund to a military cooperative.
Philippine Army Finance Center Producers Integrated Cooperative is one of the largest cooperatives in the country composed mainly of members of the military.
DBP president and chief executive Cecilia Borromeo said the bank’s loan assistance to the cooperative was aimed at broadening support to small borrowers like soldiers and micro-entrepreneurs who wish to set up their own business or expand their operations.
“Through this P2-billion revolving credit line, PAFCPIC will be able to augment its working capital and enable it to grant more loans to its eligible borrowers,” Borromeo said in a statement.
PAFCPIC is the second-largest cooperative in Metro Manila and was founded in 1981 by employees of the Philippine Army Finance Center, an institution that handles the payroll and other financial matters of the Philippine Army.
The cooperative was initially created to support the agriculture activities of its members but has diversified into other types of lending such as salary, multi-purpose and business loans to its more than 120,000 members.