Harvard Cites Plantersbank

Harvard cites Plantersbank

Plantersbank was ranked with Triodos Bank of the Netherlands and Shore Bank of Chicago in a well-documented study presented on December 2 at the Harvard Business School Conference on Global Poverty in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The three privately owned development banks were cited as models in blending business and social objectives or the double bottom line.

The study by David Porteus, director of Bankable Frontiers Associates, showed that over the last decade, Plantersbank conisistently fared well when compared to the entire banking industry performance even as the Bank remain singularly focused on financing SMEs. Until recently, the SME market has been perceived by conventional bankers as too costly, risky and difficult to assist.

Plantersbank chairman and CEO Ambassador Jesus P. Tambunting, who attended the conference, described the Harvard Business School case study as, "Truly a milestone in our corporate history and an enduring demonstration of the significant impact we have made as a development bank on the lives of our SME clients and the communities we serve.

"From the outset, these banks have explicitly intended to have a positive social impact in underserved banking niches in their respective markets, and yet also produce at least positive real returns for shareholders," according to Porteus.

According to the study, success is attributed in part to specialization in new markets; "a stable, committed shareholder coalition; the guiding influence of founders which has suffused the organizational culture; and careful management of growth."

Dutch-owned Triodos Bank is active in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom where it focuses on financing companies that contribute to a better environment or that generate social or cultural value added. It is also involved in investing in microfinance institutions in many parts of the developing world.

Shore Bank Corporation is the leading community-based, small business and...