The Philippine economy performed well in recent years, with a GDP growth of 5.6% in 2016 as compared to the world average of 3.7%. Inequality and poverty are still major points on the government agenda, yet, population share below the poverty line decreased by 5% since 2009. 70% of the economically inactive population are women and female share in non-agricultural employment is only 38%. While there are less female entrepreneurs, women have higher access to finance than men.

Philippines is the third highest remittance receiving country in the world, but it still has a large informal finance sector, only 15% of adults save and 12% borrow formally and almost 62% of the borrowers raise funds from friends and relatives. Increasing the number of ATMs per capita, which currently stands at twice as low as the ASEAN average, as well as improving savings mobilization would greatly aid in poverty reduction, as well as stimulate MSME growth through wider access to finance.