Home Credit, the leading consumer finance company in the Philippines, strengthens its programs to promote financial inclusion and serve the unbanked and underserved Filipinos in line with the Philippine government’s strategy to widen financial inclusion to more Filipinos.
In July, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas launched the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2022-2028, the country first financial inclusion blueprints that is expected to transform the country into a more inclusive society with a more empowered citizenry in the next six years.
BSP’s 2020 Financial Inclusion Initiative report revealed that in 2019, only 29 percent of adult Filipinos own bank accounts and only 19 percent had formal credit.
About 31.2 percent of Local Government Units still do not have banking presence while 4.6 percent of LGUs are still considered underserved. Despite the availability of digital financial services, BSP data also revealed that while 69 percent of Filipino adult own mobile phones and 53 percent use the internet, only 12 percent of mobile phone owners and 9 percent of internet users use their devices and the internet for financial transactions.
Home Credit Philippines believes that the key to accelerating financial inclusion is making finance more accessible to more people especially for the unbanked and underserved Filipinos. Among its key thrusts for 2022 include broadening access to responsible finance, championing financial literacy and empowerment, and promoting innovation and digital inclusion.
In 2021, Home Credit Philippines signed a ground breaking ESG-linked loan with Deutsche Bank to reinforce the company’s digitalization efforts with 60 percent of its loans availed by customers via digital channels to enable more equitable loan rates and terms to customers regardless of their economic or social background.
Thsi year, it signed a pioneering loan facility with Citi aimed at providing access to digital financial services to women with 120 million out of the 420 million of this loan facility are dedicated to women for the purchase of basic digital devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Home Credit has provided more than 18 million loans to its eight million strong customer-base. More than 70 percent of these loan applications were processed via Home Credit’s digital channels.
As June 2022 alone, Home Credit has served almost half a million new customers, over half were women and over a quarter of them were in the younger bracket.
Home Credit also launched its flagship financial literacy radio block time segment in partnership with Praxis and the Manila Broadcasting Company in June which airs two-minute financial tips across all DZRH stations nationwide. It’s set to launch its Wais sa Home financial literacy microsite featuring financial literacy quizzes and other resource this August and its Wais sa Home national roadshow aimed at expanding its financial literacy programs for youth across the country.
“Home Credit Philippines remains committed to support equitable post-pandemic recovery in the Philippines through our consumer finance services and solutions. We believe that our financial inclusion programs and financial literacy initiatives builds on the bigger vision of empowering more Filipinos,” said David Minol, CEO of Home Credit Philippines.