Microfinance practitioners and stakeholders gathered during the 2023 Annual Conference of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) held on July 25-26, 2023 at the Century Park Hotel, Manila. With the theme Reshaping Financial Services through Inclusivity, Sustainability, and Resilience, the event was attended by more than 500 participants from microfinance institutions and support organizations to discuss how financial services are changing to address financial inclusion, sustainable development, and resilience.
The two-day conference had two session tracks – Inclusivity, Sustainability, and Resilience and MFI Exchange. The Inclusivity, Sustainability, and Resilience track allowed speakers and participants to discuss topics such as agriculture insurance and use of credit data, green inclusive finance, and environmental protection and disaster response, while the MFI Exchange track enabled attendees to learn from the experiences of other MFIs in areas such as conduct of center meetings, introduction of innovations in financial and non-financial products, and preparing for digitalization.
Present during the opening session was Deputy Governor Bernadette Romulo-Puyat of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. During the opening plenary, the economic outlook of the country was presented by Mr. Kevin Cruz of the World Bank while representatives of leading microfinance players provided a reaction to the presentation by discussing the outlook of the microfinance industry in the Philippines. During the closing plenary, Commissioner McJill Bryant Fernandez of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provided a closing message and expressed SEC’s continuous support to the microfinance industry.
Preceding the conference, MCPI held its Annual General Meeting on July 24, 2023 at the Century Park Hotel and on Zoom. Members of the Board of Trustees who will serve until July 2024 are: Mr. Gilbert Maramba of Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation, Inc. as Chairperson; Mr. Eduardo Jimenez of Kabalikat para sa Maunlad na Buhay, Inc. as Vice-Chairperson; Mr. Josef Leron of CARD, Inc. as Corporate Secretary; Ms. Jane Manucdoc of ASKI Microfinance as Treasurer; Mr. Jonar Dorado of RAFI Micro-Finance, Inc. as Internal Auditor; and Mr. Glenn Anciano of Community Economic Ventures, Inc., Mr. Dexter Flores of Kabuhayan sa Ganap na Kasarinlan Credit and Savings Cooperative, Fr. Rex Arjona of SEDP-Simbag sa Pag-asenso, Inc., and Mr. Peter Montalban of Taytay Sa Kauswagan, Inc. as Members.
Presentations during the 2023 Annual Conference can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/2023MCPIConPresentations
