benjamin e diokno : speech at the ulat ng bsp sa bayan speech by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the ulat ng bsp sa bayan, 18 february 2021. * * * members of the banking community and the diplomatic corps, esteemed leaders and partners from the public and private sectors, colleagues from the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, good afternoon. there is a saying in latin attributed to the roman philosopher seneca : ignis aurum probat. fire tests gold. disruptions and upheavals, while uncomfortable and painful, are opportunities to re - examine old ways, give birth to new ideas and try exciting new strategies — undertakings that would otherwise be impossible when lulled by the comfort of the status quo. indeed, it was in the middle of one of the most formidable health and economic challenges in recent memory that we were tested as an institution, particularly in the effective delivery of our mandates. but it was also in this darkest of periods that we were able to realize our mission. we acted in the interest of the filipino people. to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, we acted quickly by providing monetary stimulus to ease tightening liquidity conditions, boost business and consumer confidence, and ensure the continued orderly functioning of the financial system. aside from traditional monetary interventions and regulatory relief measures, we also implemented extraordinary measures. for instance, the bsp entered into an initial p300 - billion repurchase agreement with the bureau of the treasury at the onset of the pandemic in march 2020 to provide the national government added flexibility in dealing with the public health crisis. after the repo was settled in september, the bsp extended short - term provisional advances worth 540 billion pesos to the national government in october. this was followed by a fresh advance of 540 billion pesos to the national government in january 2021, after the borrowing in october was settled in december. in sum, the bsp has so far injected approximately 2 trillion pesos in liquidity to the financial system, equivalent to about 11 percent of the country ’ s gdp. with this amount of liquidity, we are carefully assessing the appropriate timing of the unwinding of all these measures. doing this too late or too early may have serious repercussions on the economy. in september 2020, the bsp started issuing its own

for instance, our qr - ph system ; qr p2m facility, which allows person - to - merchant payments ; and, of course, our paleng - qr ph plus, where payments to market vendors, bicycle drivers, and jeepney drivers could now be done through your cellphone. now, of course, nothing is more frustrating than when your bank does not include one of your credit cards or one of your billers is not on its list of payees. now that is being answered, as well, with all the other innovations that are happening because of this. of course, my colleague from up [ university of the philippines ], [ department of trade and industry secretary ] fred [ pascual ], talks about all the other things that could happen because of this [ digitalization of smes ], including lending that is not collateral based. 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches these are the things we all enjoy, and we look forward to even more. and that is why the success of speed has the potential to promote a more inclusive digital economy toward, as we learn from the pandemic, a more resilient philippine economy that promotes a higher quality of life for many, if not most, filipinos. as i said, numbers, not just the size of assets, count. so, let us all go aboard and hop on to this full - speed - ahead vehicle called speed. thank you, and we look forward to many great things from project speed. 2 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches