amando m tetangco, jr : improving lives through better access to credit speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of the central bank of the philippines ( bangko sentral ng pilipinas ), at the launching of e - rediscounting in mindanao, davao city, 20 july 2007. * * * maayong udto sa inyong tanan! honrable members of the monetary board ; fellow bankers ; business leaders of mindanao as represented by the chamber of commerce and industry, the small and medium enterprise development council and micro - finance council ; special guests ; government officials who are here today, mayor lobrigat ; my colleagues at the bangko sentral ng pilipinas ; friends ; ladies and gentlemen – i am very pleased to lead the launching here today of the bsp ’ s electronic or e - rediscounting system. only a few weeks ago at the mindanao peace and security summit in cagayan de oro city the president identified two key priority programs for mindanao, which is particularly relevant to our program today. the first priority is to increase the funding for key government economic programs in mindanao. the second is to strengthen the institutions of government to promote economic prosperity in the region. given this, the launching of the bangko sentral ’ s e - rediscounting system here in mindanao is indeed very timely and appropriate. with this electronic loan refinancing facility, we expand and facilitate access to credit of countryside areas in mindanao where there are micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as exporters. this should stimulate economic activities in the local communities here. so far, the seven - month track record of our e - rediscounting system has been positive. since its initial launching in manila in december, the number of participating banks in our erediscounting system has increased from 88 to 129 while the total loans processed and released during this period has reached an unprecedented level of over p14 billion. the importance that the monetary board attaches to this initiative is clearly demonstrated by the presence of our monetary board members in this launching today and let me acknowledge them : first, mbm vicente valdepenas, jr., mbm raul boncan, mbm juanita amatong, mbm alfredo antonio, and earlier today mbm nelly favis - villafuerte was also here. the bsp top management is here with us as well today

amando m tetangco, jr : crafting a regional agenda for child & youth finance speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( the central bank of the philippines ), at the asia and the pacific regional meeting on “ child & youth finance ”, manila, 4 december 2012. * * * secretary imelda nicolas of the commission on filipinos overseas ; cyfi managing director jeroo billimoria ; distinguished resource persons ; child and youth representatives callista ( 12 years old ) from indonesia, sam ( 11 years old ) from uganda and jessie from the philippines ; fellow advocates of financial inclusion from asia and the pacific ; our media partners ; special guests, good morning and welcome to the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, the philippine central bank. we at the bangko sentral are happy that you have come to the philippines to discuss child and youth finance in asia and the pacific – where it is said roughly 60 % of the world ’ s youth reside. here in the philippines alone, about half of our total population are young. it is important for our country therefore to ensure that our youth are given proper basic education that will allow them to grow into responsible self - reliant adults. indeed, to us at the bangko sentral, finance education is for everyone. thus, when a 2006 survey indicated that less than 5 % of the filipino youth save regularly, we made a decision to place child and youth finance education high on our agenda. this is important to us. after all, we have roughly 25 million students in both elementary and high school levels. and as philippine national hero dr. jose rizal once said “ ang kabataan ang pag - asa ng ating bayan ”. the youth are the hope of our future. furthermore, the 2006 citibank financial quotient survey indicated that filipinos have a financial intelligence quotient of 47. 8 points, less than half the maximum score of 100. while there were other countries that had lower scores, the result was disturbing for us nevertheless. it was an indication that over the long term our countrymen may miss out on the opportunities that development brings or worse, be unprepared to weather financial uncertainties that may arise in the future. these results provided us with the strong resolve to broaden and deepen our financial education program. since then, the bangko sentral ng pilipinas