ICDB’s new management offers better bank services
The new management of the Iloilo City Development Bank (ICDB) is offering better deposit services, loan and other services with focus on the agricultural sector, fishery sector and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
ICDB management was taken over by Producers Bank after the Producers Bank Group bought 49 percent stake in the bank founded by the prominent Ledesma clan here. With the changes in the management style, the bank is moving on with a battle cry “we help people create new wealth.”
ICDB president and general manager Andrei Cornejo said they will be improving their banking system to cater to the needs of their potential borrowers. It would be easier for the borrowers to access the services proffered by the bank with its web-based inter-core banking application provided by info-pro.
ICDB has three branches in Iloilo; two are in the city and one in the town of Barotac Nuevo. Currently, its head office is located in the ancestral house of the Ledesmas along Rizal Street corner Ortiz Street, City Proper. They are moving to a new site at Valeria Street, City Proper next month.
The new management is very positive in achieving its goal with the recent approval of its P550-million credit facility on top of investments in its preferred stock from the Land Bank of the Philippines. Producers Bank, which is based in Ortigas Center, is the biggest branch network in Luzon with 50 operating branches.
Producers Bank’s takeover of the ICDB is the first outside Luzon. It is considered as one of the pioneering banks in the microfinance or lending to the entrepreneurial poor. With the new concept in management style, they are offering 12 to 18 percent of interest in loan per annum or 1 to 1.5 percent per month to its borrowers, said Cornejo.
The bank has prepared “better loan package for potential borrowers” especially in the agricultural sector and small and medium enterprises. It has low interest rates and payable to the borrowers, he said.
In the invigorated services of the bank, they offer deposit services for both the savings and time deposit. For the loan services, they have the Hybrid Crop loan, Go Negosyo loan, OCW loan, auto/truck loan, salary loan for local government unit employees and Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB) loan. They are also offering remittance services.
In the Hybrid Crop loan or Pang-Sakahan, farmer with at least three hectares farm land and need additional capital for their Hybrid Certified Palay Production can avail of the loan. The scheme is also in accordance with the Department of Agriculture’s program for farmers.
The repayment scheme for the borrowing farmers is good for six to 12 months. Normally, farmers pay their loan after the harvest season. Fishpond owners can also avail of the loan package prepared by the bank, said Cornejo.
With the take over, the new bank management wants “to develop new blood”. Aside from improving their services, they are eyeing the expansion of more branches and improve businesses in the community they serve, said Cornejo.