Progressive Bank Inc. (PBI) is a rural bank of operating in Balasan, Iloilo. Considered as a significant player in its market, PBI enjoys a Php 70 million portfolio with close to 20,000 clients. And although it has a near perfect performance boasting a 2% PAR, its management still feels there is plenty of room for improvement.<\/b><\/p>\n
It was thus auspicious that PBI attended a Governance Training facilitated by SEDPI in Iloilo City. Its proponents experienced first hand SEDPI\u2019s brand of training. Shortly after, PBI contracted SEDPI as partners in improving the former\u2019s microfinance operations.<\/p>\n
The PBI-SEDPI partnership started with an organizational appraisal of the bank and its sister institution, Ugyon Foundation. Its microfinance clients were interviewed on their needs and capacity, e.g. their desired interest rates, and over-all satisfaction of Progressive Bank\u2019s products and services. On the other hand, the staff was given microfinance diagnostic exams to gauge their knowledge and understanding of the industry. They were also interviewed as to how they perceived their institution and how satisfied they were with its management.<\/p>\n
From the appraisal, the needs of the organization were identified. On the organizational level, it was observed that the staff needed further capability building, especially with regard to client selection and delinquency management. Incentives schemes, compensation system, and staff benefits were also major points of concern. On the client level, better product designs were needed to win the already saturated market over well-established competitors.<\/p>\n
On May and July of 2007, SEDPI embarked on a monumental task of giving six trainings on Delinquency Management and Character Based-Lending to all Progressive Bank and Ugyon staff. These were the first of several interventions applied by SEDPI for the Progressive Bank network. \u00a0\u00a0The trainings received positive evaluations. \u201cThere are so many things that can help me [perform my job well] in this seminar,\u201d As shared by one of Ugyon\u2019s staff.\u00a0 \u201c[It] improved my skills and knowledge on handling and managing clients because of the excellent presentation of the speakers,\u201d she happily adds.<\/p>\n
One of the most recent of the PBI-SEDPI partnership was the Strategic Planning held in October 2007. On hand for the planning were PBI\u2019s board members, key managers and officers, and staff supervisors, ensuring holistic and participative discussions on vital issues.\u00a0 The institutional values, vision, and mission were crafted based on the understanding and direction favored by both the board and staff. Targets and strategies were set not only from careful market research, but also from realistic capacities of field staff and the institution.\u00a0 Now, PBI\u2019s direction is clear to all its stakeholders.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the Strategic Planning, PBI moved to enhancing their current financial products through the Product Design Seminar.\u00a0 (Results of the PD seminar).\u00a0 Today, PBI is implementing their market-based financial products, one of the many stepping stones towards improving the lives of the poor and being a significant microfinance player in Panay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Progressive Bank Inc. (PBI) is a rural bank of operating in Balasan, Iloilo. Considered as a significant player in its market, PBI enjoys a Php 70 million portfolio with close to 20,000 clients. And although it has a near perfect performance boasting a 2% PAR, its management still feels there is plenty of room for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microfinance"],"yoast_head":"\n