carrying out financial transactions was highly encouraged during the enhanced community quarantine period. ● support for continued financial services delivery. the bsp granted operational relief measures to assist its supervised financial institutions in focusing their limited resources on the delivery of financial services to financial consumers and support their subsequent recovery efforts. ● support for sufficient level of domestic liquidity and economic activity. monetary policy measures were also adopted to support domestic liquidity and extend cheaper financing to borrowers, including micro, small, and medium enterprises. following these strong, time - bound, and timely measures, the crucial question pertains to how philippine banks have been holding up through the pandemic. based on our recent assessment, our key findings suggest that : a. core funding remains relatively strong following covid - 19 outbreak ; b. bank lending slightly rises ; c. loan quality slightly weakens as borrowers experience cash flow interruptions and sustain losses due to the pandemic ; we don ’ t, however, see this trend extending in the long - run. d. financial assets grow but a slower rate as banks opted to reduce treasury activities to be liquid ; e. net income declines as additional provisioning rises. however, this is likely to be offset by lower operating expenses and deferment of capital expenditures and non - essential expenses ; and f. liquidity and capital buffers remain intact. the banking system ’ s credit growth continued amidst the pandemic. the banking system ’ s gross total loan portfolio grew year - on - year by 1. 2 percent to p10. 6 trillion as of end - october 2020. from the funding side, the banking system ’ s total deposits rose by 9. 5 percent as of endoctober 2020 to reach p14. 4 trillion. there has been a surge in the use of digital platforms during the ongoing community quarantine period that started in mid - march 2020. the greater use of pesonet is evident with the remarkable rise in the volume and value of payments made through the same from november 2019 to november 2020. over this twelve3 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches month period, payments made through pesonet more than doubled with volume surging by 349. 0 percent year - on - year and value rising by 133. 0 percent over the same period. aside from aiding businesses in mobilizing funds during the pandemic, the pesonet was also used for social transfers made through the social security system ’ s small business wage subsidy

time was one of the greatest lessons in public finance of the great depression in the united states : when public expenditures were finally in high gear, the four - year great depression was about to end. in hindsight, the deep and painful dislocations of the great depression could have been mitigated if the government had responded more quickly. thus, other countries familiar with this lesson from the great depression are moving alongside the us government to shore up their respective economies, because delayed responses could prove very costly. this includes the philippines. in particular, our government has defined a p330 billion economic stimulus program to sustain market confidence and get the economy moving more robustly. but government alone cannot achieve this. let us therefore work together to support government ’ s initiatives to keep our economy growing, to continue to grow your business, to protect jobs and to create new employment opportunities for our people. let us be mindful of the possible effects of a downturn to millions of filipinos, especially to those who continue to live in poverty. and even as we come to terms with the reality of a global economic crisis, let us not forget the positive chinese point of view that sees opportunities in every crisis. sure, the challenges are big, but there are equally big opportunities in riding them out. at the end of the day, if we remain united, we shall be able to reap the dividends from our concerted, cooperative efforts together. and so, ladies and gentlemen, today let us renew our commitment to sustain the growth of our economy through better access to credit. once again, on behalf of the members of the monetary board – monetary board juanita amatong, monetary board member raul boncan, monetary board member nellie favisvillafuerte, monetary board member alfredo antonio, monetary board member ignacio bunye and monetary board member peter favila, we thank all of you for accepting our invitation to this forum. mabuhay ang pilipinas! mabuhay tayong lahat! maraming salamat po!