From permit to prospectus

Every great enterprise begins as a permit. Before the shares and the boardroom, there is a form, a fee, and a signature at a counter. Ease of doing business is often framed as a message to foreign investors, yet it begins with the small business.

MSMEs account for more than 99 percent of Philippine enterprises, and when nearly every business is small, every needless step falls hardest on the smallest firms. The economy grew 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2026, and gross capital formation contracted 9.2 percent. In a quieter economy, small firms that can start quickly and raise capital matter more.

Red tape is the first hill on the road. An August 2026 policy note from the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development found that nearly half of businesses remained dissatisfied with registration and closure procedures. Seventy-two percent still completed registration in person at the local permit office, and nearly one-fourth waited more than 20 days.

The Anti-Red Tape Authority reported that only 127 of 1,642 local government units were fully compliant with the electronic one-stop shop requirement at the end of 2025, with 1 November 2026 as the deadline for all to process permits online. Lapu-Lapu City, cited as a model, has issued a permit in under five minutes.

Time returned is growth earned. Fewer days and fewer pesos between an idea and a registered enterprise bring more firms into the formal economy — where they can hire, pay taxes, and borrow.

The distance still to travel shows in the credit data. The BSP reported in September 2026 that bank loans to MSMEs exceeded P580 billion, only about 6 percent of total business lending.

The SEC has set out to shorten the road. It halved corporate document fees in 2025 and cut them a further 25 percent this year, and discounts to MSMEs reached P157.31 million as of July.

It widened same-day OneSEC registration to 81 industries in 2025. Under Memorandum Circular 4, series of 2026, corporations with assets or liabilities of up to P3 million, up from P600,000, may submit certified instead of audited financial statements. The proposed One Business Start Date would let a company begin operations upon SEC registration while other permits proceed in parallel.

Yet a permit is only the first page. The next chapter is capital. A formal MSME can look beyond the bank to the capital market, through SEC-registered crowdfunding intermediaries, which spare small issuers separate securities registration, or through listing on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The chain is unbroken: ease of doing business, less red tape, a larger formal economy, wider access to the capital market, and stronger corporate governance. Because MSMEs are the majority, the chain is tested at their level.

The SEC’s task is to keep every link sound, so that the next great corporation, once a small business at a permit counter, finds the road open and the rules worthy of trust.