has been implementing an integrated economic and financial learning program that covers different segments of our society – from students to young adults to overseas filipinos and their families to teachers and parents as well as the unbanked and the underbanked. our ultimate goal is to make people part of our financial system while giving them protection. in other words, we want to develop an inclusive financial system that will generate inclusive growth through financial education and protection. in this connection, i am pleased to report that the development of the philippine microfinance sector is one success story in our continuing efforts to develop a more inclusive financial system. in fact, the philippines has been cited for the fourth consecutive year for having the world ’ s best regulatory environment in promoting microfinance. millions of filipino microentrepreneurs and their families have been liberated from poverty through microfinance which gives access to credit without collateral. as of june 2012, banks have an outstanding microfinance loan portfolio of p 7. 7 billion and an equally impressive savings portfolio of p4. 3 billion from microentrepreneurs. bis central bankers ’ speeches indeed, the success of many microentrepreneurs is proof of the empowering benefits of gaining access to financial services. this is the reason why we are optimistic about the impact of having lessons on entrepreneurship taught to our elementary students. using language and concepts that are easy for children to understand, the bangko sentral and the department of education produced teaching guides to instill in children an understanding and consciousness of financial issues. this is at the heart of the bsp - depeds finance education program. the lessons range from telling the difference between needs and wants to undertaking income - generating ventures to the concept of inventory to acquiring the qualities of a successful entrepreneur. all these with the aim to hone their financial decision - making skills that will serve them well into adulthood. ladies and gentlemen. in this journey, we have met many challenges ; but we also gained partners along the way. one of our partners was the learning section of the local newspaper philippine daily inquirer. supported by citi and the bangko sentral, it published a six - week series designed for high school students : “ money matters for teens : you can bank on it ”. it eventually earned the top prize from the world association of newspapers for “ excellence in efforts to engage the youth ”. another partner is the bankers institute of the philippines which conducts personal finance management lectures for teachers and parents

financing of terrorism ( cft ). this will ensure that activities relating to vasp are executed within an unbroken chain of regulated entities. once issued, the aforementioned circular will address identified gaps by the financial action task force guidance for a risk - based approach on vasps. updates on other initiatives of the bsp under the national retail payment system on top of the aforementioned developments, the bangko sentral and the payments industry, led by the ppmi, continue to work on the following initiatives aimed at transforming our payments environment from a cash - heavy to a cash - light ecosystem : 1. qr ph for p2m payments the qr ph will further penetrate the market with the availability of the person - to - merchant ( p2m ) qr ph in the near term. this facet of the qr ph adoption is expected to advance financial inclusion since it will attract the small unbanked vendors and their customers to own a transaction account to be able to enjoy p2m qr ph which is a breakthrough in the country ’ s e - payment development. 2. bills payment currently, the country has a fragmented bills payment mechanism where a biller typically has to make a bilateral arrangement with a payment service provider ( psp ) if the former wants to electronically collect from the clients of the latter. the bills payment initiative aims to eliminate inefficiencies in the bills collection process, by ensuring that a biller can collect from its customer without requiring both parties to transact through a common psp. 3. direct debit 5 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches a direct debit will enhance customers ’ management of recurring payments such as monthly rents by simply authorizing the payees to pull funds directly from their accounts. likewise, having a direct debit arrangement would help payees streamline collection efforts and provide assurance that expected cash inflows are settled on time. 4. affordable fees on micro transactions together with ppmi, the bangko sentral is working on reducing the cost of doing digital payments to encourage the consumers to shift from cash - based to digital transactions. recent issuance of the payment system oversight framework ( psof ) the bangko sentral ’ s continuing thrust to develop the national payment system comes along with its mandate under the national payment systems act ( npsa ) to promote financial stability by adopting reforms for strengthening governance and risk management over payment systems. such reforms are envisioned to be designed and implemented through the enforcement of an institutionalized framework which