bsp is pushing for legislative measures that will help catapult the philippines toward its next stage of economic development. these measures seek to : • expand the list of sectors that banks can lend to, in compliance with the mandated lending for agriculture development ; • lift secrecy of bank deposits, which will help efforts against tax evasion and money laundering ; • enhance access of micro, small, and medium enterprises to credit through a comprehensive credit database ; • improve the protection of consumers of financial products and services ; and • strengthen the capacity of government financial institutions to provide assistance to micro, small, and medium enterprises and other strategically important companies. the bsp likewise supports national government efforts to push for laws that will further enable foreign investments to the philippines. these bills include : 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches ( i ) amendments to the foreign investment act ; ( ii ) amendments to retail trade liberalization law ; and ( iii ) amendments to public service act. finally, on the bsp ’ s monetary and financial sector reforms … amid an ever - changing landscape, bsp constantly looks for ways to improve our conduct of monetary policy and financial sector supervision. on the monetary front, for instance, the bsp started issuing its own debt securities last september. this increases bsp ’ s set of tools to manage liquidity in the economy, consistent with our price stability mandate. latest estimates by the bsp showed that inflation will average 4. 0 percent this year and 2. 7 percent next year — both within the official target range of 2. 0 to 4. 0 percent. on financial supervision … we issued circulars that keep our regulatory framework attuned to the times. circular 1108 enhances the know - your - customer rules for virtual asset providers. this is in line with our efforts to improve cyber security as we promote financial digitalization. circular 1109 scraps the p1 - million minimum balance requirement for investment management accounts. with this, investment products become accessible to more filipinos, consistent with our financial inclusion objectives. circular 1111 relaxes the implementing guidelines of the agri - agra law. with this, banks may extend loans to more types of enterprises, in compliance with the mandated lending for agriculture development. amid a dynamic regulatory environment, our banking system has been resilient to shocks. banks remain well capitalized. their assets continue to grow. banks are also able to keep their bad debts manageable — far from levels seen in the aftermath of the asian financial crisis.

benjamin e diokno : bsp ’ s digital payments transformation roadmap for 2020 - 23 speech by mr benjamin e diokno, governor of bangko sentral ng pilipinas ( bsp, the central bank of the philippines ), at the makati business club, 27 october 2020. * * * ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. let me start by drawing your attention to the bsp ’ s digital payments transformation roadmap for 2020 to 2023. this roadmap sets out our initiatives and strategies for achieving an efficient, safe, and inclusive payments ecosystem. the roadmap has two key strategic objectives. firstly, it aims to strengthen customers ’ preference for digital payments by converting 50 percent of the total volume of retail payments into digital form. this first objective includes expanding the proportion of financially included to 70 percent of filipino adults. to help us assess how well our policy interventions contribute to the transformation into digital payments, the better than cash alliance or btca is helping us in building a simulated model, which will estimate the potential change in the level of e - payments volume and value driven by policies initiated by the bsp. the second objective is to encourage innovations which will boost real - time payments velocity. in particular, we intend to have more available innovative digital financial products and services that cater to the needs of consumers. these services will be enabled by the national id system. it will also be and supported by the availability of modern payment services that will facilitate real - time processing of financial transactions. these bsp objectives hinge on a triad of critical pillars that are seen to build an environment that is conducive to digital transformation. one of the pillars relates to the development of payment streams. at present, we have an instant payment stream called the instapay, and a batched payment stream called pesonet. i will talk more about payment streams in a while. the next pillar relates to the establishment of digital infrastructure which facilitates interoperability of payment services. interoperability allows seamless transaction processing which is necessary for achieving efficiency. the last pillar is the implementation of digital governance standard. the goal is to maintain public trust in the payment systems. this will be done by protecting the integrity of consumer data and ensuring appropriate management of digital products and services. with this roadmap, we have achieved significant progress in collaboration with our strategic partners including the philippines payments management, inc. or ppmi, usaid, btca, united