This year’s annual conference of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI) held a massive record of attendees, bringing together 450 microfinance practitioners on July 27-28, 2017 at the Century Park Hotel, Manila.

More than 20 delegates from KMBI attended the convention. The organization’s dance group, K-Force, led the invocation. Program Members from Tandang Sora Branch also performed for the intermission number.

The conference discussed the implementation of the Microfinance NGOs Act or RA 10693, which seeks to establish a regulatory body that governs all Microfinance NGOs. The Microfinance NGO (MF NGO) Regulatory Council aims to institute and operationalize a system of accreditation for MF NGOs which shall include governance, financial performance and social performance standards. It is envisioned that all MF NGOs will be compliant with the standards set by the regulatory council in the next three years.

Other important topics included utilizing digital technology to better complement the Microfinance operations, milestones and challenges in the Microfinance industry, empowering MSMEs through enterprise development, and making use of the Credit Information Systems to help in the gathering and sharing of credit information between Microfinance institutions (MFIs).

A message from Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., the newly appointed Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), capped off the 2017 MCPI Annual Conference. He encouraged all Microfinance institutions to create client-centric programs and services that would promote inclusive growth.