financing of terrorism ( cft ). this will ensure that activities relating to vasp are executed within an unbroken chain of regulated entities. once issued, the aforementioned circular will address identified gaps by the financial action task force guidance for a risk - based approach on vasps. updates on other initiatives of the bsp under the national retail payment system on top of the aforementioned developments, the bangko sentral and the payments industry, led by the ppmi, continue to work on the following initiatives aimed at transforming our payments environment from a cash - heavy to a cash - light ecosystem : 1. qr ph for p2m payments the qr ph will further penetrate the market with the availability of the person - to - merchant ( p2m ) qr ph in the near term. this facet of the qr ph adoption is expected to advance financial inclusion since it will attract the small unbanked vendors and their customers to own a transaction account to be able to enjoy p2m qr ph which is a breakthrough in the country ’ s e - payment development. 2. bills payment currently, the country has a fragmented bills payment mechanism where a biller typically has to make a bilateral arrangement with a payment service provider ( psp ) if the former wants to electronically collect from the clients of the latter. the bills payment initiative aims to eliminate inefficiencies in the bills collection process, by ensuring that a biller can collect from its customer without requiring both parties to transact through a common psp. 3. direct debit 5 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches a direct debit will enhance customers ’ management of recurring payments such as monthly rents by simply authorizing the payees to pull funds directly from their accounts. likewise, having a direct debit arrangement would help payees streamline collection efforts and provide assurance that expected cash inflows are settled on time. 4. affordable fees on micro transactions together with ppmi, the bangko sentral is working on reducing the cost of doing digital payments to encourage the consumers to shift from cash - based to digital transactions. recent issuance of the payment system oversight framework ( psof ) the bangko sentral ’ s continuing thrust to develop the national payment system comes along with its mandate under the national payment systems act ( npsa ) to promote financial stability by adopting reforms for strengthening governance and risk management over payment systems. such reforms are envisioned to be designed and implemented through the enforcement of an institutionalized framework which

william c dudley : the national and regional economy remarks by mr william c dudley, president and chief executive officer of the federal reserve bank of new york, at the whitman school of management at syracuse university, syracuse, new york, 27 september 2013. * * * good afternoon. i am pleased to be here today at syracuse university. it is always a pleasure to speak with the different communities that make up our region, and it is especially gratifying to have the opportunity to speak with you, our future leaders. so thank you for inviting me. my meeting with you today is part of our continuing efforts to understand what is going on at the grassroots level of our economy. earlier on this trip, i met with government and business leaders in buffalo, rochester and syracuse to learn about some of the challenges the region faces as well as the collaborative efforts being taken to further economic development. the agenda for these visits is always packed, but that ’ s part of the point – to meet with a diverse array of representatives in order to get a comprehensive picture of economic conditions in the region and a fuller understanding of the major issues and concerns. this is our fourth trip to upstate new york in the past few years and recent trips have also taken us to northern new jersey, the boroughs of new york city, long island, and fairfield county, connecticut. my outreach trips complement the ongoing efforts of the new york fed to assess conditions in the upstate new york economy and throughout our district. we monitor economic performance on a monthly basis through our indexes of economic activity and our survey of new york state manufacturers. we also get important input on economic conditions from meetings with our upstate advisory board, whose members are major leaders in the upstate economy. we have constructed a consumer credit panel that allows us to better understand the financial condition of homeowners and students, and conduct a bi - annual poll of small businesses to understand their credit needs and availability. the results of the latter have helped inform a series of clinics that we have conducted to help small businesses take the next step to access capital and identify new sources of funding. as i mentioned earlier, we are always eager to engage with students, and our commitment to our region includes a series of educational programs worth highlighting. first, math x economics, which encourages students attending title 1 schools to consider preparing for a career in finance or economics. and, second, our yearly fed challenge competitions, in which teams of students from high schools and colleges in the district take on the roles of