to mind. first, it may be useful to revisit the issue of having 11 benchmark tenor buckets. it should be evident by now that having so many benchmark tenors does not necessarily improve the ability of the market to price off - the - run issues. stated differently, the major economies typically have 4 - 6 benchmark tenor buckets only and this has not weighed against liquidity and the pricing of off - the - run issues. recent initiatives to exchange short - for - long - term issues help to consolidate depth but a significant potential remains untapped. second, the bond market can be a more active vehicle for raising long - term capital. the fact that the gs market is as big as a third of gdp is itself not a binding constraint. economies such as hong kong, korea, malaysia and singapore all have significant corporate bond markets that complement their respective gs market. this would be a healthy next step for the philippines as it broadens the financing options for corporations while reducing the gapping pressure on bank credits. third, we need to recognize that the philippines is an archipelago. the implication is that the market needs to bridge the gap in space to provide real - time opportunities. two credits cannot be priced differently if all that distinguishes them is location. unless there is economic value to location, any such difference is simply arbitrage. worse, the same credit cannot be priced differently as an investment opportunity in two different locations at the same time. that is simply blatant inefficiency, if not market bias. fortunately, technology has moved forward to allow us to fill gaps in time and space. some time back, the bsp entered into a partnership with market stakeholders on the national settlement highway. the nsh is the technological backbone that will allow the public to efficiently clear and settle good funds across entities in different regions. more recently, the fi - bios was launched to provide retail investors in different regions with the capability to place investment orders on real time basis. these are the type of technological innovations that help us address the unique situation of the philippines. i trust that we can maximize the use of such facilities and make further innovations where needed. fourth and final initiative, the development of the bond market, whether gs alone or inclusive of corporate issues, will not be self - sustaining unless there is a financially - aware investing public. this is not a trivial task but the onus of providing the public with relevant information must be shared by all stakeholders, both

has played a very important role by improving cooperation between national supervisors and promoting supervisory convergence. but these improvements fall short of the needs of an effectively unified supervisory system. substantial and swift progress in this field is therefore needed. let me just finish by making a general comment. it is obvious that the creation of a banking union poses enormous challenges for europe that will require strong political support and effective cooperation among all authorities involved. the good news is that if we look at the process of european integration from a historical perspective, we realise that this is not the first time that the way forward has been highly complex. and, past experience has regularly shown that the response has always been to deepen integration and increase the transfer of national powers to the union as the best – and possibly only – way to preserve all the achievements made so far. bis central bankers ’ speeches