between 2. 0 – 4. 0 percent. and, hopefully, for the rest of 2024, it will stay the same. today, i will also turn my attention to our second pillar, financial stability, which defines our role as regulators and supervisors of financial institutions. the best way to summarize this slide is : right now, the banking system is growing. it is more than adequately capitalized. they have enough provisions for credit losses and, therefore, what it says is : we have a strong banking system that will enable the economy to recover quickly as soon as mobility restrictions imposed by covid are lifted. and it is turning out that with the first three quarters of the year, we are seeing just that. indeed, the growth rate of the economy this year is, of course, most likely to exceed the bottom of the target of the government, which is 6. 5 percent or higher. but there are limits to the banking system. as you know, when you look at the balance sheet of a bank, a big part of the money being lent out is depositors'money and less than 20. 0 percent is equity. now, what is the problem? well, it looks stable. but just because it is stable, it does not mean it remains that way. so, therefore, a bank - because deposits can be withdrawn anytime - will be reluctant to lend all of it. indeed, when you look at the balance sheet of the bank, a big part of it will be in liquid marketable securities just in case depositors change their minds and move somewhere else. banks better have enough money to finance the withdrawals. then, in addition, it is very hard for a bank to make a loan that is fixed rate or longer than seven years because of the very [ short - term ] nature of the funding source. 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches on the other hand, you [ actuaries ] work for insurance companies. i was told that 60. 0 – 70. 0 percent of you work for insurance companies, where the savings are really longterm because they are [ set aside ] for life insurance or for retirement. in this case, you are the natural source ; the insurance companies are the natural source of longer - term funds. now, of course, for some reason, the role of the banks [ in the financial system ] is disproportionately high. and although we supervise banks rather than insurance companies, we

amando m tetangco, jr : bancnet 25th anniversary speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the bancnet 25th anniversary, makati city, 24 july 2015. * * * i am delighted to be with you tonight to celebrate bancnet ’ s 25th anniversary. silver anniversaries are always important. you have come so far, and the future beckons with exciting opportunities. and so, happy anniversary and congratulations to all the members, officers and staff of bancnet. from the point of view of the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, there are many reasons for you to celebrate. let me cite a million reasons why : • 113 member institutions as of end - 2014 represent an atm cardholder base of over 73 million. by march this year, the number had increased to nearly 78 million cardholders. • the high volume of switched transactions reached almost 500 million in 2014 or an average of 1. 36 million transactions per day. with the on - going integration of megalink into bancnet, you are creating a unified atm switch network in the philippines. finally, this is happening. these are significant milestones indeed but the story is not complete. our eyes are now set on creating a national retail payment system or nrps and bancnet should be part of this grand journey. what is nrps? well, nrps envisions filipinos to have easy access to financial services and have accounts to make payments, and receive or transfer funds to other accounts anytime, anywhere, at a reasonable price from any digital device. efficient retail payments contribute to the stability and efficiency of the financial system and the economy as a whole. studies have shown that shifting from paper based to electronic - based payment system can generate an annual savings up to 1 % of gross domestic product ( gdp ). how can this potential market impact your business? based on country diagnostics conducted by the better than cash alliance ( btca ), of which the philippines is a member, filipinos make about 2. 5 billion payment transactions per month worth us $ 74 billion, but only 1 % are transacted electronically ; 99 % of the transactions are paid either in cash or checks. nrps will allow us to start reversing this ratio. in other words, you have the option to have a bigger slice of this huge