##lc was able to produce tangible results of its investigation efforts and cause the freezing of assets with an estimated value of over one billion pesos. it also actively caused the forfeiture of assets with an estimated value of 600 million pesos. all these investigation efforts helped in the development of 11 money laundering complaints, two terrorism financing complaints, 23 applications for bank inquiry for money laundering, and three applications for bank inquiry for terrorism financing. these are only possible through the unrelenting efforts of the competent men and women of the amlcs. fourth. the amlc conducted risk assessment and strategic studies, the latest of which 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches assessed the philippines ’ exposure to threats linked to child pornography. it was an example of a study that made use of the rich information contained in amlc ’ s database based on the submissions of covered persons. fifth. the philippines is in the latter stage of the mutual evaluation ( me ) which gauges the country ’ s levels of technical compliance with international anti - money laundering / counterterrorism financing or aml / ctf standards as well as effectiveness of the country ’ s existing aml / ctf system. prior to the me report ( mer ), the amlc conducted a self - assessment based on the existing legal framework, operations of competent authorities, and statistics to forecast the evaluation results. on effectiveness, the assessment reflected accurate ratings for seven out of the 11 immediate outcomes ( ios ), while on technical compliance, the assessment reflected accurate ratings for 34 out of the 40 financial action task force ( fatf ) recommendations. following the adoption of the mer, the philippines has entered a 12 - month observation period, the completion of which requires the country to submit a comprehensive progress report to the asia / pacific group on money laundering ( apg ) focused on the implementation of its recommended actions. this 12 - month observation period gives us an opportunity for the country to remedy identified shortcomings in the mer. as such, i enjoin everyone to work even harder to ensure that the philippines is able to successfully exit the 12 - month observation period. we cannot afford to have the philippines in the financial action task force ’ s list of high risk and non - cooperative jurisdictions. hence, we should be very strategic in our focus for the next 12 months. with perseverance, a reinforced secretariat and a closer link with partner agencies, i am confident that we will be able to address the country ’ s weak aml / cf

16 figure 10 indicates that lending by depositories over the current downturn does not appear particularly weak or subdued relative to other downturns. indeed, for all components of credit other than home mortgages, the path of lending in the current downturn lies toward the upper end of the range of outcomes for past business cycle downturns. of course, some of the observed lending by depositories in the current downturn does reflect the safety - valve role played by financial intermediaries in the financial system – that is, households and, in particular, businesses drawing on existing lines of bank credit when alternative sources of finance have become more difficult to obtain. finally, when home mortgages made by a set of charts ( figures a. 1 and a. 2 ) are provided online that also include the paths of credit around the business cycle peaks preceding non - credit - crunch recessions. note that the data for depositories shown in figure also use the flow of funds accounts. depositories only is considered, the path of lending lies within the range of outcomes for past business cycle downturns ( albeit toward the lower part of the envelope ). given the enormity of some of the events of the past year, the findings of these business cycle comparisons may seem somewhat surprising. however, as was evident from the facilities and programs discussed earlier, policy has been extremely active in the current credit crisis, especially with respect to the banking sector. given the similarities between home mortgages in the current downturn and commercial mortgages in the 1990 - 91 recession, as well as the commonality that both recessions were characterized by a financial system crisis, the outcomes for lending in the 1990 - 91 recession could be thought of as a possible scenario for lending in the current downturn in the absence of any policy response. that said, the likely path of lending in the current downturn without any policy response would have been notably more contractionary than in the 1990 - 91 recession given that the earlier episode – while characterized by a financial crisis – did not face as extreme an episode as the one experienced last september. conclusion today i have reviewed developments in specific financial markets following the introduction of federal reserve and other agency facilities and programs, and have considered the evolution of the major categories of credit in both the current economic downturn and past downturns. this assessment of the data suggests that these government programs have been broadly successful in relieving stresses in the key credit markets. this success is also reflected in aggregate credit