August 12, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company (JICA) have rolled out a brand new web-based credit score scoring system designed to assist banks and different lenders higher consider the creditworthiness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Credit score Danger Database Philippines (CRDPh) System upgrades the present stand-alone scoring device into an automatic on-line platform. It types a part of the second section of the BSP-JICA Credit score Danger Database undertaking began in 2020.
The initiative goals to handle info gaps that always make it tougher for SMEs to safe loans, whereas serving to monetary establishments enhance risk-based lending, mortgage pricing, and scale back reliance on collateral.
In a memorandum to banks and different BSP-supervised entities, the central financial institution stated the CRDPh System is an automatic platform designed to streamline the secured submission and processing of information and retrieval of CRD outputs. The system was developed to shift the stand-alone CRD scoring device right into a web-based platform.
“By complementing present fashions and instruments, the CRDPh System expects to reinforce the monetary establishments’ credit score risk-based analysis of SME debtors, tackle info asymmetry, enhance mortgage pricing, scale back dependence on collateral and in the end assist entry to finance of SMEs,” the BSP stated.
The platform was developed from anonymized monetary, non-financial and borrower efficiency knowledge submitted by 33 pioneer monetary establishments. Utilizing statistical fashions, it will possibly generate a likelihood of default and credit score rating for SME debtors with related attributes, resembling trade, location and key monetary ratios.
In contrast to credit score bureaus, the CRD doesn’t present borrower-level credit score histories. As an alternative, it produces statistical outputs that lenders can combine into their inner credit score analysis processes.
Participation within the CRDPh System is voluntary, however each pioneer and new collaborating establishments are anticipated to periodically submit SME knowledge utilizing prescribed templates, in compliance with anonymization and knowledge safety requirements. The system makes use of encryption and safe transmission channels to fulfill BSP’s knowledge governance guidelines.
The BSP stated the platform will profit each lenders with and with out their very own SME scoring fashions. These with out can use CRD outputs as a ready-made threat evaluation device primarily based on a big nationwide database, whereas these with present fashions can use CRD knowledge to validate their inner rankings.
For now, use of the CRDPh System is free-of-charge, though a payment construction could also be launched later to maintain operations. Deliberate enhancements embrace comparability of CRD outputs with a monetary establishment’s inner scores, consultancy companies for SME portfolio evaluation and statistical experiences to assist banks observe sector developments and alter lending methods.
Japan’s CRD system, which began in 2001 with 52 members and now counts 165, has been credited with growing SME lending volumes, boosting collateral-free loans, and enabling risk-based assure charges. The Philippines is the primary nation to undertake the mannequin outdoors Japan.
