METRO Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Alberto “Abet” Bercasio said over the weekend that the closure of Golden 7 bank would be a setback to many small and medium enterprises in Naga City especially those who had been benefitted by the bank’s micro-lending programs.

        Bercasio said that the bank, which have been placed recently under the receivership of Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation, had found its niche in the local business setting by sponsoring programs that enabled small-scale businesses to source capitals at lower interest rates.

        He added that the closure of the bank would also put into question the reliability of other local rural banks. This in turn would eat into the confidence of the banking public over rural banks’ capability to safeguard their finances.

        But he said the closure of the bank did not necessarily mean that there was a dampening of the city’s business atmosphere, adding that the business situation in the city had remained normal.

        He said that real estate development business in the city, in fact, is thriving—relaying that 50 percent of the approved housing loans of the Government Service Insurance System in Naga City were from loan applicants seeking to build their houses in subdivisions within the city.

        He further said that entertainment and hotel businesses in Naga City also had been experiencing a boom due to increased tourist arrivals in the city and Camarines Sur province. Jonas Cabiles Soltes