Global debt watcher S&P Global Ratings said the recent amendments to the charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will be good for the country’s financial and banking system in general.
“… These enhancements augment BSP’s powers to exercise its core mandate of promoting a sound financial system, in our opinion,” S&P said in a report Wednesday.
“We believe the amendments to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas charter significantly improve the supervisory powers of the regulator by giving better legal protection to officials. The clauses providing full indemnity to BSP officials until they are finally adjudged to be in willful violation of the act are stringent and make it more difficult to sue them compared with the previous act,” it said.
It said the amendments were positive steps toward greater independence and more effective implementation of prudent policies and measures. Previously, supervisors were civilly liable if they had not applied “extraordinary diligence,” an onerous requirement, in our view.
