2019 to 42 % in 2022. many consumers opened digital accounts or e - wallets. government also used digital accounts to distribute cash assistance during the pandemic. as a result, mobile wallet ownership surged from 8 % in 2019 to 36 % in 2021. this helped raise the overall number of filipinos with transaction accounts from 29 % in 2019 to 56 % in 2021 - equivalent to 22 million filipinos who became financially included in the span of two years. this milestone is important to us. transaction accounts are gateways to financial inclusion. we have seen depositors improve their lives from gaining access to other financial services, such as loans, insurance, and investments. for instance, insurance helps farmers recover faster from losses inflicted by natural calamities, while small business loans help microentrepreneurs expand or pivot their businesses. indeed, while we have a long way to go in our financial inclusion journey, millions of filipinos are already benefitting from our multi - pronged financial inclusion initiatives. ladies and gentlemen, i stand on the shoulders of giants. the bsp's financial inclusion journey started during the term of then governor rafael buenaventura. the general banking law, which was enacted in 2000, mandated the bsp to recognize microfinance as a legitimate banking activity. as a response, he declared microfinance as the bsp's flagship program to help alleviate poverty in our country. his vision was to bring microfinance to every province in the philippines. he called on banks to develop microfinance programs, provided incentives to banks that set up dedicated microfinance units, created a microfinance team within the central bank, and frequently requested journalists to write about microfinance. his successor was governor amando tetangco jr. he saw how microcredits could be so empowering for the entrepreneurial poor and, sometimes, even uplift the communities around them. for 12 straight years, governor tetangco chaired the national annual search for the best microentrepreneurs - and witnessed how thousands were liberated from poverty by economic activities financed by microcredit. he said : " we learned that financial inclusion is complementary to our primary objective of price and financial stability. also, individuals who are adequately informed and included are effective economic agents. " under governor tetangco's term, the bsp expanded its focus from microfinance to financial inclusion. the goal was to give millions of filipinos access to a broader

benjamin e diokno : fighting money laundering and terrorism financing speech by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the anti - money laundering council's 19th anniversary, 20 october 2020. * * * ladies and gentlemen of the amlc secretariat. good afternoon to everyone. i am delighted to be with you today on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the amlc. this year, we celebrate under unprecedented circumstances. not only are we allies in fighting money laundering and terrorism financing, but, along with the rest of the world, we are fighting an invisible but deadly virus. the covid - 19 pandemic has caused us grief and fear, both as individuals and as a nation. but it has also compelled us to address our weaknesses and to shift our assumptions and biases toward fresh, if not better, possibilities. though the pandemic has brought the world to a slowdown and even to a halt, during the first few months, the amlc soldiered on against money laundering and terrorism financing. and we have the following milestones to show for it. first — as the pandemic has presented an opportunity for money launderers and other criminals — the amlc initiated and conducted an analysis of the financial crime landscape, covering a period of the pandemic and using suspicious transaction reports ( strs ) submitted by covered persons. the amlc ’ s “ covid - 19 financial crime trend analysis and typologies brief ” has since been disseminated to supervising agencies, appropriate government agencies, law enforcement agencies, several financial intelligence units, and public - private partnership program partners. the report has also been shared with the asia pacific group on money laundering and the financial action task force ( fatf ) ; and a redacted version has been made available online. an update of the study, which expands the data set, will soon be released as well. it is interesting to note that one of the top reasons for str filing, based on the study, are associated with violations of the anti - child pornography act of 2009. child exploitation - related strs increased in 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. this increase may be primarily due to the amlc ’ s 2019 study on online child sexual abuse and exploitation ( csae ). the amlc ’ s supplemental study on the online sexual exploitation of children observes that its 2019 study on csa