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By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has
relaxed the rules on bank lending for the housing requirements of
low-income Filipinos.
In a statement, the BSP said it has approved the
application of microfinance principles and best practices to the
provision of housing finance for home improvements, house
construction as well as house and lot acquisition.
Qualified under the new rules are home
improvement loans amounting to no more than P150,000, and borrowings
for house construction and acquisition up to a maximum of P300,000.
The BSP said qualified loans will likewise enjoy
the incentives granted to regular microfinance loans like no
collateral requirements or the acceptance of collateral substitutes,
as well as simpler documentary requirements.
“This addresses the usual barriers that the
poor face in accessing housing finance,” it said.
The BSP said the new rules provide a significant
push to the government’s efforts to increase pro-poor shelter and
address the country’s housing backlog.
With this approval, the central bank said
lenders with microfinance operations are provided the opportunity to
complement their present microfinance operations by offering the
product to reduce the risk of business loans being applied to
housing requirements.
The housing microfinance loans will also be
considered as alternative compliance to the mandatory credit
allocation to agrarian reform and agriculture activities as required
by Presidential Decree 717, or the Agri-Agra law.
The BSP said it would soon enter into a
memorandum of agreement with state-run Housing and Urban Development
Coordinating Council on the accreditation criteria and standards
that will be applied to the banks that will offer this product.
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