benjamin e diokno : continuity, collaboration and a better future speech by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the 1st fintech alliance summit, manila, 26 march 2019. * * * fintech alliance philippines chairman lito villanueva, fintech alliance philippines members, industry partners, fellow monetary board members, ms. tess espenilla and family, colleagues from the bsp, and workers in government, friends from the media, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. i am honored to be your keynote speaker during the 1st fintech 1 alliance summit. this is my first time, as bsp governor, to address the country ’ s leading companies in the financial technology sector. as such, today is an opportune time to share with you that i fully support and will carry forward our financial inclusion agenda so that financial services are made more accessible to a greater number of filipinos. in fact, i expressed the same during my first press conference as bsp governor earlier this month. thus, i am indeed glad that you chose “ inclusion and digital transformation ” as conference theme because this is truly in line with my policy priorities. launch of the governor nestor a. espenilla, jr. institute for growth and national inclusion, transformation and empowerment ( ignite ) i understand that most of you here had the great opportunity to work closely with my predecessor, the late nestor a. espenilla, jr., who championed financial inclusion and digital transformation. we are all undoubtedly inspired by the life and work of gov. nesting. it is thus fitting that later this morning, we shall witness the launch of the governor nestor a. espenilla, jr. institute for growth and national inclusion, transformation, and empowerment or ignite. ignite is a multi - stakeholder, research - based and data - driven advocacy. it is a social transformation platform that leverages on technology to empower financially unserved and underserved filipinos for more inclusive growth. i hope that with ignite, we can open a world of new possibilities and better opportunities to the financially excluded. as plans are being finalized, let us continue putting our collective energies behind this project, and to push forward our inclusive growth agenda at full speed. to ms. tess espenilla and family, may you take comfort in knowing that his legacy continues to live — and today

while our measures have clearly played a decisive role in keeping inflation expectations anchored and have contributed to an improved inflation outlook, an ample degree of monetary accommodation therefore remains necessary to secure a return of inflation rates towards levels that are below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. how is our monetary policy likely to evolve in the foreseeable future? our monetary policy stance is currently determined by the combination and mutual interaction of the asset purchase programme ( app ), our policy rates and our forward guidance on each of these tools. additional stimulus is provided by the targeted longer - term refinancing operations ( tltros ), which will remain outstanding for the next three years. once our key interest rates had reached exceptionally low levels, the app became for all practical purposes the primary policy tool for calibrating our monetary policy stance. this is why, 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches since january 2015, we have been signalling the traditionally tight connection between the ecb ’ s monetary policy and the price stability objective by linking an assessment of the medium - term outlook for inflation to the size and duration of our net asset purchases. accordingly, we have consistently communicated our intention to continue with our chosen pace of monthly net purchases until we see “ a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with our inflation aim ”. in addition, the pledge to reinvest the proceeds from the principal payments that accrue from the maturing securities in our portfolio should be seen as a necessary complement to the net asset purchases. forward guidance on both policy rates and the app plays a key role in determining our monetary policy stance. its function has evolved significantly over time. in july 2013, when we announced for the first time that we expected our “ key interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time ”, forward guidance on interest rates was intended as a protective measure to insulate the euro area money market from the global financial turmoil that had followed the “ taper tantrum ” a few weeks earlier. as the macroeconomic environment deteriorated in late 2013 and early 2014, our policy needed to become distinctly more accommodative, and forward guidance turned into a vehicle for easing the monetary policy stance. forward guidance has not taken the same form across all major economies, differing in terms of both its degree of conditionality and the instruments to which it is attached in the euro area, since the app has been in place, forward guidance has been extended to key parameters of our