both of which have over a billion in population. financial inclusion and remittances indeed, there are many challenges – and opportunities – in providing access to financial services to migrant workers and their families. the remittances sent home are mostly used for consumption expenditures – 97. 3 % of of households used the remittances to purchase food and other household needs. this helps drive our economy. bsp department of economic statistics more than 10 million ofs sent $ 25. 8 billion worth of cash remittances in 2015, up by 4. 6 % from $ 24. 6 billion in 2014. bis central bankers ’ speeches another positive development, as indicated by a bsp survey ( ces ), is the rising proportion of households directing remittances received to savings – from 7. 2 % in 2007 to 43. 4 % in the first quarter this year. this is one of the many reasons why philippine bank deposits have been hitting record high levels - it was p8. 5 trillion in december 2014 and over p9. 2 trillion as of december 2015. nevertheless, the challenge and the opportunity is to encourage more investments by of households ; it continues to lag way behind savings. as indicated by our survey, households that allocated part of their remittances for investments, increased from 2. 3 % in 2007 to only 6. 5 % in the first quarter this year. that is over a period of nearly nine years! for institutions, the challenge is to develop and promote products suited to the needs of ofs. financial education is essential for ofs to realize the opportunities - as well as possible pitfalls - in investments. equally important, financial institutions should consider it their responsibility to inform ofs of their rights and protection as financial consumers. the importance of remittances for enhancing the financial stability of ofs and the economic growth of our country cannot be overemphasized. as part of the bsp ’ s program to develop a more inclusive financial system, we have put in place policies and programs to enable the development of a wide range of products that can cater to the needs of ofs and their beneficiaries. we also continue to implement a nationwide economic and financial learning program where we have a special focus on ofs. in fact, the bsp won the global forum on remittances and development public sector award for 2015 in recognition for what it described as outstanding commitment, innovation and impact in promoting remit

confident that their knowledge and experience would be immensely helpful to the participants in understanding and appreciating the practical implications behind these changes both from a supervisor ’ s perspective as well as from the standpoint of the supervised institutions. to conclude, let me say that we all face enormous resource and capacity constraints in coping with existing responsibilities, let alone undertaking these new challenges. hence, the value of coming together to share our experiences and plan regional training programs for our member countries is very important. through these meetings, we can learn and maintain strong networking relationship which should enhance our efforts in capacity building in this innovative and challenging area of financial supervision. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me much pleasure to declare this regional seminar for financial supervisors open and i wish you all an enjoyable and fruitful week of discussions. thank you for your attention and may god bless you all. soifua.