The Philippines has formed a credit bureau dedicated to micro-borrowers. The country’s central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), expects this move to help boost growth in lending to the country’s low-income sector to a double-digit pace in 2012.

The nation’s seven biggest micro-finance institutions—Taytay sa Kausagan Inc. (TSKI), OK Bank, CARD Bank, CARD NGO, Negros Women, Ahon sa Hirap and ASA Philippines—signed a memorandum of agreement on the creation of the bureau in order to facilitate its formation and subsequently make the targeted lenders more comfortable extending loans to micro-entrepreneurs. Entitled “Microfinance Data Sharing System (MiDAS)” the memorandum mandates that credit information on micro-borrowers be placed in a common database, providing lenders equal access to information.

Aristotle Alip, Managing Director of microfinance umbrella organization CARD MRI Development Institute, said other entities engaged in microfinance are welcome to be part of the credit bureau. Alip further stated that, unlike any regular data-sharing agreements, the one signed by the seven micro-finance institutions will serve to guide lenders in their credit decision-making.

Outstanding microfinance loans in the Philippines currently stand at about P7 billion and cover nearly 1 million clients. There are about 200 banks and credit institutions in the country that engage in microfinance.