Loan releases by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the civil servants’ pension fund, jumped to 151 billion pesos in 2021, mainly due to support for members who have reached their borrowing limit and are unable to repay their loans.

In a statement, Rolando Ledesma Macasaet, President and CEO of GSIS, said loan releases totaled 151 billion pesos from January to December 2021, up 4% from 145 billion pesos the previous year. .

Macasaest said GSIS loans benefited more than one million members and retirees in 2021.

“Through our various Ginhawa for All (GFAL) loan programs, GSIS provided financial assistance at a time when our members and retirees were in dire need of assistance,” Macasaet said.

Of the total amount granted, 106 billion pesos was under GFAL Multipurpose Loans (MPL). The loan is intended to help active members, especially those who have reached their borrowing limit and are unable to repay their loans.

MPL consolidates members’ existing loans, excluding home and policy loans, and waives surcharges on defaulted accounts.

Through GFAL MPL, members can apply for up to 14 times their basic monthly salary, but not to exceed 3 million pesos. It has a low interest rate of seven percent or eight percent depending on members’ premium payments.

The pension fund also released 27 billion pesos to 62,974 beneficiaries of the GSIS financial assistance loan, through which members were able to borrow up to 500,000 pesos, consolidate their loans with approved credit institutions in their branches and transfer the remaining balance to GSIS.

Under the GFAL IT Loan Scheme, GSIS has disbursed over P7 billion in gross proceeds, benefiting over 230,205 borrowers.

The GFAL Computer Loan is a loan window that grants P30,000 assistance to GSIS members to purchase a computer unit for their work from home or their children’s online lessons.

Similarly, the GSIS granted 6 billion pesos to 269,440 ordinary and optional borrowers; 1 billion pesos to 38,980 GFAL emergency loan borrowers; and 89 million pesos to 2,035 members through Ginhawa’s educational loan program.

For retirees, 3.03 billion pesos and 96 million pesos were released in the form of GFAL enhanced pension loan (38,144) and emergency loan for retirees (4,415), respectively.