LANDBANK Officer-in-Charge Cecilia C. Borromeo accepts the “SME Product of the Year” award for the Bank’s BUILDERS loan program. With her are (from left): The Asian Banker Managing Director Foo Boon Ping, LANDBANK Executive Vice President Julio D. Climaco, Jr., LANDBANK Senior Vice President Edward John T. Reyes, Startupbootcamp FinTech Co-Founder and Global COO Markus Gnirck, and FinFabrik CEO Alex Medana.

LANDBANK’s BUILDERS program was awarded “Best SME Product” at The Asian Banker’s Philippine Country Awards 2016. The awards ceremony was held in conjunction with the Philippine International Banking Convention at the Shangri-La at the Fort, Bonifacio Global City.

The Bringing Urbanization and Innovations thru LANDBANK’s Diverse Engineering Resource Support or BUILDERS program provides business loans to SMEs in the local construction market. It forms part of the Bank’s contribution to the Public-Private Partnership projects of the national government by extending credit support to private and public sector players in the industry.

“This award is an affirmation of what we at LANDBANK are doing to help the SME sector and other major development players, whom we consider as allies in promoting economic growth. Through the BUILDERS program, we help contribute to the government’s thrust to promote inclusive growth through infrastructure development and also help create jobs in the process,” said LANDBANK Officer-in-Charge Cecilia C. Borromeo.

Launched in 2014, the program crossed the billion-mark just a year after it was launched, with the bank’s SME loan book and deposits recording double-digit growth in the same year.

As of June 2016, the program generated roughly one-third or 29% of the outstanding revenue of the Bank’s SME business with loan releases amounting to P19.6 billion lent to 230 contractors. This helped fund various projects, including farm-to-market roads and bridges, telecommunications infrastructure, residential units, commercial buildings, sanitary landfills, water and sewerage systems, sea walls, among other development projects.

The Asian Banker Philippine Country Awards recognizes the most outstanding financial products, services, and organizations in the country and forms part of the prestigious awards programmes ran by The Asian Banker, covering the full spectrum of topics and areas that constitute the financial services industry.

LANDBANK also bagged both the first and second places in the inaugural Talent Bank Philippines 2016 held as part of the Philippine Country Awards. The LANDBANK Operations Sector Chorale got the top prize with their all-original a cappella arrangement. They will be representing the Philippines to compete in the Talent Bank Asia at The Asian Banker Summit 2017 in Singapore.  The LANDBANK Got Talent All Stars with their modern hip-hop rendition of traditional Filipino dances meanwhile won second place.

Talent Bank Asia is a new initiative launched by The Asian Banker this year to bring together and recognize the creativity and talent of people in the financial services industry.