What It Means
- LandBank MSME lending now runs through the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s nationwide network, giving formalized small business members a direct referral pathway to government credit.
- The LIFTING MSMEs Lending Program, launched in September 2025, offers three loan tiers: Start-Up (₱100,000 to ₱500,000), Step-Up (₱500,000 to ₱5 million), and Level-Up (up to ₱50 million).
- As of April 2026, LandBank has approved ₱2.25 billion in loans under the program across key regions.
- PCCI will refer member businesses, support financial readiness, and promote business formalization, adding an institutional layer to what was previously a direct-application process.
- The partnership sits under the Marcos administration’s UPLIFT framework for inclusive growth.
The Land Bank of the Philippines and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on June 13, 2026 to expand access to LandBank MSME lending through PCCI’s member network. The tie-up links PCCI members to the LIFTING MSMEs Lending Program, LandBank’s three-tier credit facility for businesses at different stages of development.
The LIFTING program has been running since September 2025. Its three tiers cover new enterprises through the Start-Up Loan (₱100,000 to ₱500,000), growing micro and small firms through the Step-Up Loan (₱500,000 to ₱5 million), and established businesses scaling capacity through the Level-Up Loan (up to ₱50 million). Loan proceeds can be used for working capital, equipment, expansion, renovation, digitalization, franchising, export finance, and green projects.
The PCCI Channel as a Distribution Layer
Before this agreement, LandBank MSME lending operated through its branch network and online Business Loan Application portal, open to qualified borrowers regardless of chamber affiliation. The PCCI partnership formalizes a referral layer on top of that existing structure.
Under the MOU, PCCI will promote the LIFTING program through its chapters nationwide, refer potential borrowers, and support financial readiness and business formalization among its members. LandBank, in turn, extends access to lending programs, digital payment solutions, deposit products, financial literacy, and sustainability-focused financing.
PCCI has chapters across all major regions in the Philippines. For LandBank, that network is a distribution asset, a ready channel for reaching business owners who are already organized, already formalized to some degree, and already interacting with other financial institutions through their chamber activities. The referral arrangement reduces LandBank’s outreach cost and puts PCCI in the position of pre-screening borrower readiness before applications reach the bank.
LandBank MSME Lending Approvals Reach ₱2.25 Billion
LandBank MSME lending under the LIFTING program reached ₱2.25 billion in approved loans as of April 2026, roughly nine months after the program launched. That’s about ₱250 million a month in approvals across a three-tier structure covering businesses from micro-enterprises up to mid-sized companies.
The figure represents real credit moving to real businesses. LandBank has been running regional rollouts, including events in Negros Occidental and other provinces, to bring the program directly to entrepreneurs who may not have initiated an application on their own.
The PCCI partnership should accelerate that pace. Chamber networks carry institutional trust. When a business owner hears about a loan program through a PCCI chapter meeting rather than a bank advertisement, the signal is different. The referral comes from a peer organization, not a sales channel.
Credit Access and the Formalization Filter
LandBank MSME lending through the PCCI channel will primarily reach businesses that are already operating in formal or semi-formal structures. PCCI membership requires business registration and active participation in chamber activities. The LIFTING program’s collateral requirements, including real estate mortgages and credit guarantees for larger loan tiers, further define who can realistically complete an application.
That is not a design failure. It reflects how credit risk works in practice. A government bank extending unsecured credit at scale without documentation and collateral requirements would carry different risks and serve a different institutional mandate.
What it means structurally is that the PCCI channel expands LandBank MSME lending within a specific band of the MSME population: formalized, chamber-affiliated, and collateral-capable. The micro-entrepreneur operating informally, without land title or credit history, is not the profile this MOU is built to reach. LandBank’s online portal and branch network remain their access point, and those channels already existed before this agreement.
The Program Behind the MOU
The LIFTING program itself is broader than the PCCI tie-up suggests. LandBank also extends a rediscounting line to credit cooperatives, rural banks, and microfinance institutions that provide loans to MSMEs, covering up to 85 percent of outstanding receivables. That mechanism pushes LandBank MSME lending deeper into the credit chain, through institutions that are already embedded in communities LandBank does not directly serve.
The program also includes financial literacy training, entrepreneurship support, and digital onboarding for borrowers. LandBank frames LIFTING as integrating its existing lending initiatives into a single structured facility rather than creating a new standalone product.
The PCCI partnership is one of several institutional tie-ups LandBank has pursued to expand the program’s reach. An earlier MOA with the Department of Trade and Industry, signed in December 2025, set the institutional foundation. PCCI adds another distribution node in the same architecture.
Credit Flows to Where It Can Move
The ₱2.25 billion approved under LandBank MSME lending since September 2025 will grow with the PCCI channel in place. The chamber’s nationwide reach, its member base of formalized businesses, and its role in promoting financial readiness give LandBank a more structured pipeline than direct advertising alone.
What moves next is the composition of that pipeline. If PCCI chapters in secondary cities and provincial hubs bring in businesses that were previously outside LandBank’s direct reach, the program’s geographic spread widens. If the referrals concentrate in Metro Manila and established urban chambers, the disbursement data will look different. LandBank has not yet published a regional breakdown of LIFTING approvals. That number, when it comes, will say more about the program’s actual reach than any MOU.
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