amando m tetangco, jr : the strength of retail – in a wider asean economy speech by mr amando m tetangco, jr, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the chamber of thrift banks ( ctb ) annual convention, makati city, 19 march 2014. * * * every year, your industry comes together to exchange views on the prospects for the year ahead. with your theme this year “ thrift banks : preparing for 2015 asean integration ”, the thrift banking industry is recognizing a development that has quietly evolved through the years and will soon crystalize. asean integration – broadly through the asean financial integration framework or afif and more specifically through the asean banking integration framework or abif – will come to fruition in line with the asean 2020 vision that was enunciated way back in 2007. it is, in this sense, imminent and the chamber is being responsive by preparing for this eventuality. in fact, for this convention, the organizers have lined up experts to tackle different facets of integration. my role this morning is to describe the broad economic landscape, including the challenges and opportunities, that the thrift banking industry currently faces against the backdrop of asean integration. the chamber is being strategic in this way, for clearly, understanding one ’ s starting point and initial conditions is just as important as defining one ’ s final destination. the economy at large let me begin therefore with the economy at large. it is tempting to simply cite the array of indicators that show that the macro - economy is strong. in 2013, we again saw the convergence of high growth and stable prices as the country posted a real gross domestic product growth rate of 7. 2 percent amid an inflation of three percent. this is on top of the real gdp growth of 6. 8 percent and a 3. 2 percent inflation rate in 2012. we need to appreciate these numbers not just because they are better than the performance numbers that came out of 2011 ( which were 3. 6 % real gdp growth and 4. 6 % inflation rate ). instead, these are excellent numbers because of the calamities that befell us during the period. 1 on the external front, the balance of payments position was at usd5. 1 billion for 2013. and the gross international reserves at almost 12 months ’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services continues to provide ample cushion against external vulnerabilities

• situational awareness to understand and pre - empt cyber - events ; • collaboration to drive resilience in support of broader financial stability objectives ; • cyber - governance to implement and review the approach to managing protection against cyber - risks to ensure effective security controls that protect confidentiality ; and • the integrity and availability of assets and services as well as the testing of the elements of the cyber - resilience framework to ensure their overall effectiveness. these guidelines will have implications for the way in which we exercise oversight over both national and regional payment fmis, the way in which we regulate and supervise the financial institutions under the sarb mandate, as well as the way in which we monitor financial stability. at a domestic level, the bankers among you would have noted that this year cybersecurity is one of the flavour - of - the - year topics that the bank supervision department of the sarb will cover in its annual engagements with the boards of directors of banks. motives for cyberattacks are, however, not limited to theft and often extend into a more sinister realm. regulatory authorities must consider the possibility of systemic risks in the financial ecosystem, such as hackers bringing down a critical financial infrastructure for a prolonged period of time and the consequences of such an event. to this end, the sarb has established the financial sector contingency forum ( fscf ), in which all the major financial sector stakeholders are represented. one of the responsibilities of the fscf is to put contingency plans in place for such eventualities. but that is not enough. we must do more, which brings me to the purpose of this conference. the purpose of this conference against the background of an expanded mandate, as described in the fsr bill, the sarb has taken the initiative to organise this cybersecurity conference. given the potentially systemic impact of new innovations, the sarb does not take cyber - threats lightly and it is serious about deepening cyber resilience in the financial services sector. the selection of the theme for this conference – “ collaboration for building cyber resilience ” – has been deliberate. we want to galvanise collective thinking and action around cyber resilience and facilitate the emergence of appropriate measures to counter common threats. we also cannot address this problem in isolation. in a highly interconnected world, our cyber - defences are literally as strong as the weakest link. all role players – from critical infrastructure operators and financial firms through to technologists