nestor a espenilla, jr : thinking out of the bank speech by mr nestor a espenilla, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the cocktail hour : up close and personal with the bsp governor, manila, 26 october 2017. * * * wtcmm chairman guilly luchangco, wtcmm president pamela pascua and officers of wtcmm, partners from the private sector, fellow public servants, special guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. to get up close and personal – this underlines the terms of reference for this afternoon ’ s cocktail hour..... i think the natural tendency is for people not to disclose too much of themselves... candor requires courage. sharing about one ’ s identity, vision and values, necessitates confidence. i welcome this opportunity to share more about the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, who we are, our policy thrusts and initiatives. to be able to engage our stakeholders in the shared task of national development, we must make ourselves and our mandates more widely known and understood. getting past first impressions with philippine banknotes issued by the bsp and marked with our logo... with banks making reference to our authority... and with our name mentioned in media fairly often, it is easy for filipinos to know of the bangko sentral... but knowing the bsp is an entirely different thing. allow me to take us beyond acquaintance... apart from being a supervisor and regulator of banks and other financial institutions, and apart from being the sole issuer of our currency, most of what we do at the bsp seems esoteric to the general public. this is not surprising as the workings of economics, statistics, data analytics and the like, often do not enjoy public attention ( maybe, even public interest ). issuing and implementing policies to promote stability is the crucial work that the bsp does in the background. when one thinks of the bsp, one may have the initial impression that our functions are detached and removed from everyday life... the impression is that perhaps, the policies and regulations we churn out do not have that much impact on the ordinary citizen... i hope very much that we would get past this notion. as businessmen, investors and consumers, you may have seen and experienced that the philippines has, been enjoying strong economic growth

and collegial respect, grounded on the conviction that everyone has something to contribute to the organization. at the same time, let us always be mindful of protecting and strengthening our institution through risk based management and ensuring efficient resource management, among others. we should work on strengthening our financial position so we can pursue our mandate more effectively. the rms sector under andy suratos has led the way by implementing a bankwide energy conservation program for which we have been awarded a five - star rating of 97 %. think bsp. fellow workers at the bangko sentral. you have within you, we have within us, the capacity to make things better for our institution and for our country. our mandate empowers us to serve through responsive monetary and banking policies. let us therefore remain united in working on our vision of a better life for all filipinos. finally, on behalf of the members of the monetary board, i thank all of you for a job well done in the first half of the year, all things considered. let us also congratulate and thank cpo for organizing this insightful midyear organizational performance review session, and acknowledge all the other departments and offices that have provided support to this undertaking. mabuhay ang bangko sentral! mabuhay ang ating bansang pilipinas! maraming salamat sa inyong lahat! let ’ s enjoy the rest of the evening.