{"id":71726,"date":"2025-10-06T07:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T23:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=71726"},"modified":"2025-10-02T16:13:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T08:13:32","slug":"visa-and-philguarantee-team-up-to-expand-credit-access-for-msmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2025\/10\/06\/visa-and-philguarantee-team-up-to-expand-credit-access-for-msmes\/","title":{"rendered":"Visa and PhilGuarantee team up to expand credit access for MSMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Visa signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine Guarantee Corporation (PhilGuarantee) to expand credit access and promote financial inclusion for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Through this collaboration, Visa and PhilGuarantee will explore opportunities to provide credit guarantee schemes for MSMEs, enhance their access to credit through partner lending institutions, and support their digitization via various capacity-building initiatives. This collaboration will utilize\u00a0Visa Government Solutions, which offers services like disbursement programs, payment acceptance, and financial education, to streamline operations and boost financial inclusion. PhilGuarantee, an agency under the Department of Finance, is tasked with providing accessible and efficient guarantee systems for key government sectors.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">MSMEs, which number over 1.2 million and account for more than 66% of total employment, are vital to the country&#8217;s economy. However, MSMEs face significant challenges when it comes to accessing capital. A recent Visa study\u00a0revealed that 44% of MSMEs highlight cash flow as a top challenge, with over half reporting that their cash reserves would last less than six months. In total, less than 10% of total corporate loans also went to MSMEs, underscoring the funding gap that hinders many MSME owners.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">To support MSMEs in the Philippines and other Asia Pacific economies, the Visa Foundation previously launched a\u00a0$100-million small business accelerator initiative\u00a0aimed at advancing digital financial inclusion, stimulating job creation, and increasing access to capital for SMEs in Asia Pacific, including the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The program is complemented by Visa\u2019s\u00a0Practical Business Skills\u00a0program, which equips SME owners with essential knowledge in cash flow management, digital payment integration, and financial planning.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cOur collaboration with PhilGuarantee reiterates our support to the government\u2019s vision to expand financial inclusion \u2013 supporting our MSMEs\u2019 contribution to overall economic growth, and they deserve to have access to financial products and solutions that are responsive to their needs,\u201d said\u00a0Jeffrey Navarro, Visa Country Manager for the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visa and PhilGuarantee will explore opportunities to provide credit guarantee schemes for MSMEs, enhance their access to credit through partner lending institutions, and support their digitization via various capacity-building initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":71727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[2172,96,676],"class_list":["post-71726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-finance","tag-technology","tag-visa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71728,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71726\/revisions\/71728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}