eli m remolona : welcome message - 2nd digital financial inclusion awards welcome message by mr eli m remolona, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), for the second digital financial inclusion awards ( dfia ) a€ “ awarding ceremony, manila, 24 october 2023. * * * citi philippines ceo paul favila ; chairperson of the microfinance council of the philippines gilbert maramba ; founder of card mri aries alip ; fellow members of the national selection committee ; advocates for digital financial inclusion ; our outstanding digital microentrepreneurs and microfinance institutions, special guests, good afternoon and welcome to the bangko sentral ng pilipinas. today, we honor five microfinance institutions and 20 microentrepreneurs under the second digital financial inclusion awards. they have embraced the transformative power of digital technologies to grow their operations and serve their clients. the digital solutions they adopted ranged from e - commerce, social media marketing, and use of ewallets. i can tell you, the national selection committee had a really tough time choosing the finalists. so rich was the pool of nominees. we applaud all the nominees for investing time and resources in digitalization. the bsp values this digital financial inclusion awards. it supports and promotes both microfinance institutions and microentrepreneurs who successfully adopted digitaiization to boost efficiencies and scale up customer services. their initiatives are aligned with the bsp's digital payments transformation roadmap and our national strategy for financial inclusion. under this roadmap, our goal is to convert 50 percent of the total volume of retail payments into digital form and to onboard 70 percent of filipino adults to the formal financial system. so how are we doing? well, the share of digital payment transactions reached 42 percent in 2022 ; account ownership was 56 percent in 2021 ; and 65 percent in 2022. we are gaining ground, but there is still so much more to do. ladies and gentlemen. microenterprises and microfinance improve the lives of so many filipinos, more so when they are digitalized. today's awardees prove this. they are good role models that inspire and inform. i therefore thank our partners from citi, from mcpi and the members of our national selection committee for supporting digital financial inclusion. to our awardees, we thank

thomas jordan : does the swiss national bank need equity? summary of a speech by mr thomas jordan, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, to the statistisch - volkswirtschaftliche gesellschaft, basel, 28 september 2011. * * * the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). the swiss national bank ( snb ) had to report heavy losses for 2010 and the first half of 2011 due to the strength of the swiss franc – or, more precisely, due to valuation changes on its foreign currency reserves. consequently, it suffered a substantial reduction in its equity. understandably in such a situation, concerns began to be voiced in public. questions often posed in this context include : might the snb lose its capacity to act as a result of a negative equity level? and, if its equity were negative, would the snb have to be recapitalised, or might it even have to go into administration? the short answer to these questions is “ no ”, because the snb cannot be compared with commercial banks or other private enterprises. for one thing, a central bank cannot become illiquid. this means that a central bank ’ s capacity to act is not constrained if its equity turns negative. moreover, unlike other enterprises, it is not forced to implement recovery measures or go into administration. for another, central banks enjoy a funding advantage over private companies, owing to their banknote - issuing privilege. moreover, they generate surplus income over the long term. thus, over time, a central bank like the snb can usually rebuild its equity level all on its own after a loss. nevertheless, even for a central bank, a long period of negative equity is not without its problems, as it can undermine the bank ’ s credibility and its independence in the longer term. for these reasons, it is important for the snb to maintain a sufficient level of equity. to ensure that the snb can carry out its monetary policy mandate without restriction, also in the long term, in the interests of the country as a whole it is essential that its capital base be adequately rebuilt. this means that the necessary profits must be earned, and retained. in the long run, the entire economy will benefit. bis central bankers ’ speeches