The Small Business Corporation (SB Corporation) will reopen its COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program online Borrower Registration System (BRS) on 17 August 2020 as part of the economic relief program for micro and small enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SB Corporation said online loan applications received prior to this date are already on the final stages of processing, maintaining a queuing of first come first serve basis.

Tagged as CARES 2 to distinguish from the initial run of the program, the upcoming CARES window will require all applicants to apply through SB Corporation’s online BRS found in this link. Manual applications will no longer be accepted.

Also read: 6 financing options to help your business stay afloat during and after a crisis

The loan features of CARES 2 will have the same features as CARES 1 including loan limit, zero interest rate, service fee, grace period and repayment term. The same identification and business registration documents are required.

However, for ease of loan release as well as to reduce physical contact and minimize community transmission of COVID-19, loan applicants under CARES 2 requesting loans more than P 30,000 are required to have a bank account where the SB Corporation will deposit the loan release proceeds. The bank account should either be Land Bank of the Philippines or any PESONet or InstaPay participating banks.

Also read: Introducing Biz Starter: Checking account for MSMEs, exclusively for UnionBank GlobalLinker members

For loan applications P30,000 and below, electronic money accounts (EMA) such as GCash and PayMaya may substitute the bank account requirement.

The bank/EMA account must be under the name of the loan applicant. Loan applicants will not be able to proceed with their online application without their bank/EMA account details. Moreover, the SB Corporation will not allow a change in bank/EMA account details during the loan release phase, relative to what is indicated in the online loan application.

CARES 2 loan applicants will also be required to submit the following during the online application:

• Three photos of the enterprise’s operations and fixed assets, inclusive of business signage. Image file size should be limited to less than 2 MB; and
• A 1 - 3-minute video on the business’ operations, with the loan applicant explaining the enterprise’ products and services, buyers and suppliers, level of sales and number of employees. For ease of uploading, the video may be cut into one-minute sections.

In case the loan applicant has an outstanding negative credit track record with any financial institution (FI) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an approved payment arrangement with subject FI should be first secured. Otherwise, the loan application will be automatically denied.

Loan processing of applications of formally registered MSEs who are able to submit the following documents shall be completed in a few working days upon documents verification:

• SSS registration of employees in 2019, to serve as basis for number of employees prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• BIR-filed financial statements for 2019, to serve as basis for volume of annual sales. The subject financial report should indicate a positive net income.

Likewise, loan applicants must ensure the correct encoding of their first, middle and last names. The name on the application must be the exact same name on the borrower’s government-issued ID and supporting documents. Otherwise, the loan application shall be rejected. The loan applicant will have to submit a new online application.

The SB Corporation is committed to deliver the much-needed assistance of affected micro and small enterprises while making sure that the barest minimum standards the lending guidelines are observed and complied with. Hence, the further streamlining of processes towards this end.

For additional information, please contact the P3 Hotline at 8651-3333 for NCR and toll-free hotline 1800 10 651 3333 for those outside Metro Manila.

Image source: Freepik

Source: DTI