benjamin e diokno : welcome remarks - 6th asean central bank heads of internal audit network meeting welcome remarks by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the 6th asean central bank heads of internal audit network meeting, 16 november 2021. * * * distinguished heads of internal audit ( ia ) and delegates of central banks in the asean region and the asian development bank, esteemed guest speakers, colleagues from the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant day to all. on behalf of the monetary board and the bangko sentral ng pilipinas, i welcome you all to the 6th asean central bank heads of internal audit network meeting, which the bsp is hosting for the first time. it is unfortunate that we could not have hosted this meeting in manila where we can personally meet and welcome you, but i am sure that this virtual conference will be just as engaging and productive. behind the theme of this year ’ s meeting, which is aptly entitled “ internal audit at the forefront of digital innovation ”, is a similar novel concept : digital darwinism. it revolves around a simple rule : evolve or risk being irrelevant. in the last decade, we have witnessed how technology has dramatically advanced our day - to - day lives. we have also seen how the financial services industry has evolved to offer more customer - centric financial products, leveraging on emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics, among others. the pandemic has further quickened this evolution. if anything, the pandemic has taught us that digitalization is no longer desirable to have, but a must - have. like other asean nations, the philippines aims to regain and surpass opportunities lost to the covid crisis. we want an economy that is stronger and more technologically advanced than ever before. one way of achieving this is through financial digitalization. going digital, building on it, tailoring it, securing it, and pushing it to new frontiers is imperative if central banks are to be successful in navigating the post - covid - 19 economy. in 2020, the bsp has launched the digital payments transformation roadmap where we aim to achieve two major goals by 2023 : first, that at least half of all financial transactions in the country are done digitally ; and second, at least 70 percent of filipino adults have financial accounts.

movements. it is, however, an entirely different matter to go beyond today ’ s problem - oriented cooperation in international bodies, as is being sought in proposals to establish a more formalised exchange rate regime based, for instance, on target zones. these suggestions have remained dry runs, and i assume they will probably remain so in the future. under the present conditions of deregulated financial markets and free movement of capital, there are only three ways such systems can work to begin with - either : – there is already a strong convergence of the real economy and of anti - inflationary policy between the partners, causing parities to naturally remain in existence “ on their own ”, so to speak. this convergence has rarely existed within the triad over a relatively lengthy period of time. at the moment, the structural differences between america, japan and continental europe are becoming more evident. – or, the countries are otherwise willing to change parities quickly, as unobtrusively as possible and in a forward - looking manner. however, experience has shown that such systems tend to be “ too little, too late ”. – a third possibility is to subordinate other internal economic policy targets almost completely to the exchange rate. but this probably only makes sense if carried out by a small country with strong external trade links and if it is desired that external trade links exercise a disciplinary effect on policy. however, none of these considerations make a stronger exchange rate management in the tripolar world realistic today. ii managing a tripolar world : there is still another facet to this topic. it is also about the monetary policy of those countries which are not part of one of the three poles but which have to define their relationship to these three poles somehow. as regards the european countries, some of them are reassessing their positions towards the monetary union or are making considerable progress in the convergence process. a case in point is greece, which was recently able to carry out a realignment rather unobtrusively. at the eu summit in helsinki, important preliminary decisions on the enlargement of the eu were taken. i assume that those countries will use the euro as a beacon to guide their monetary policy over the long term. upon accession to the eu they will automatically become “ member states with a derogation ”, the maastricht treaty ’ s term for those eu countries not yet participating in monetary union. the emerging economies, too, must define their position in the currency triad. how do they intend to fix