amando m tetangco, jr : excellence in communication at a strategic level speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( the central bank of the philippines ), at receiving the international association of business communicators ( iabc ) 2013 ceo excel lifetime achievement award, manila, 25 july 2013. * * * the officers and members of iabc under the leadership of chair elpi cuna and iabc president ritzi ronquillo, distinguished fellow awardees, special guests, friends, good evening. i am deeply honored to receive the 2013 ceo excel lifetime achievement award and for this i thank the iabc. in your letter informing me of this award, you described the awardees as belonging “ to the select group of outstanding national and industry leaders who epitomize management competence and excellence in communication at a strategic level ; a leader for good governance and responsible corporate citizenship who inspires others to serve for the greater good. ” ladies and gentlemen. i have been a central banker for 39 years now, of which eight years have been spent at the helm of the bangko sentral ng pilipinas as governor and chairman of the monetary board. and to this day, i still find my work challenging, meaningful and fulfilling. indeed, i have always felt it is a privilege being given the opportunity to serve our people and our country as a public servant. across the country, the commitment to serve runs deep at the bsp – from our 18 branches, three regional offices to our security plant to our manila head office. i therefore share this award with my colleagues, whose drive to excel is motivated by the singular vision of achieving a better life for filipinos through sound monetary and banking policies. at all times, we are conscious that what we do or what we say can affect millions of filipinos for the better or not. in this connection, we make sure that two - way communication is maintained with our various constituents. among others, the bangko sentral has maintained a consultative process given that concerns of financial markets have become broader in breadth and deeper in consequence. clearly, we cannot afford a unilateral approach ; even if we do not agree on every policy detail, we continue to find ways to address issues together. with open channels of communication the bangko sentral and the banking sector continue to evolve in response to the needs of our growing economy. today, our banking sector is sound,

now stabilized at the present narrow range. based on our studies, the pass - through effect of this on inflation is very minimal. this development is reflected in the country ’ s external payments position, wherein rising imports have resulted in a modest deficit in our current account. the country ’ s overall balance of payments ( bop ) position, nonetheless, is very manageable and can stand resilient against external headwinds as we see stable flows from remittances and receipts from bpo services as well as increasing tourism revenues and foreign direct investments in the years ahead. we estimate a moderate bop deficit of less than one percent of gdp this year. providing liquidity buffers to the bop is the country ’ s international reserves which stand at over $ 81 billion, equivalent to almost 9 months of imports of goods and payment of services. in fact, the country ’ s gir exceeds our gross external debt of usd 72. 5 billion, which has reduced to the equivalent of 23. 5 percent of gdp. i would also like to emphasize that in view of the country ’ s strong external payments position, the philippines has become a creditor to the imf since 2010 from being a chronic debtor. strong macroeconomic fundamentals – robust economic growth, manageable inflation, healthy external accounts, and a stable banking system – these are the fruits of the sound economic management and purposeful reforms implemented in the past. given this very positive backdrop, continuity is not only wise but necessary. rest assured the bsp shall stay committed to the sound conduct of its core functions – namely monetary policy, banking supervision and improvement of the payments system. as in the past, we will also continue in our practice of crafting meaningful and proactive policy reforms that are aligned with best practices and international standards, but which at the same time are sensitive to our unique domestic conditions. in the process, we will continue to engage relevant stakeholders so that policies are attuned to what is happening on the ground. one example of this commitment in practice is our recent enhancement of corporate governance standards among bsp - supervised institutions. the monetary board lately approved revised corporate governance standards, with the bsp expecting board members of its regulated entities to promote a culture of good governance. another example is the enhancement of surveillance tools on the exposures of banks and other supervised institutions to the real estate sector. the monetary board approved enhancements to the prudential reporting requirements for the supervised entities in order to strengthen oversight of their real estate and