Microfinance non-government organisation CARD Inc has secured a $4-million loan from the Asian Development Bank while digital payments platform Strike announced its expansion to the Philippines.
ADB extends $4m loan to microfinance firm CARD Inc
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it has disbursed a $4-million loan to the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) Inc, a non-government microfinance organisation.
The loan will be used to expand CARD’s lending to low-income borrowers, especially women, in the Philippines, ADB said. It will increase the firm’s funding capacity to provide working capital for micro-borrowers.
CARD is a microfinance non-government organization with a presence in most Philippine provinces. As of December 2020, CARD had about 1.3 million micro-borrowers, 85% of them women, and an 8.8 billion pesos (about $160 million) loan portfolio.
In the Philippines, 63% of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are owned by women.
Digital payment platform Strike expands to the Philippines
Strike, a global digital payments platform built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, announced that it has expanded its Send Globally product to the Philippines, one of the world’s largest remittance markets.
Strike’s Send Globally product allows money transfers between the US and the Philippines through its partnership with Pouch.ph. US dollars are received as Philippine pesos in a recipient’s bank or mobile money account in the country.
Strike launched Send Globally in December 2022 starting with transfers from the US to Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. Currently, Send Globally is available to people sending money to the Philippines and for use by tourists and businesses.
“The US-Philippines remittance market is one of the largest in the world, and until now, most Filipino-Americans have been limited to outdated options,” said Ethan Rose, founder and CEO of Pouch.ph.