“The Market-Based Road to the Bank” - A Policy Study on the Philippine Regulatory Framework for Microfinance

This study is interested in tracing the process of financial reforms in the Philippines. Starting from the financial liberalization reforms implemented during the 1980s, the research mainly looks at the institutions and organizations involved in the series of events that led to the issuance of the National Strategy for Microfinance, which also led to the creation of the Microfinance Regulatory Framework. The study posits that the Philippine Regulatory Framework for Microfinance was shaped and remains to be guided by market-driven principles of financial liberalization, and as such, the banks are the ones greatly encouraged to develop and grow as microfinance actors in the country’s growing microfinance industry.