Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday he fully supports the financial inclusion efforts of the government.
“The BSP will fully support and carry forward our financial inclusion agenda so that services will be accessible to majority of Filipinos,” Diokno said during the Financial Technology Alliance Index Summit held at the Bangko Sentral.
He said the financial technology transformation altered the business landscape that required businesses to innovate to flourish and survive.
“The BSP is ahead of the curve in identifying the opportunities and setting guidelines for financial inclusion… The BSP remains committed to establishing regulatory environment for fintech firms to thrive but aware of the risks,” Diokno said.
He said the BSP prepared the groundwork in the last three years for expanded financial inclusion efforts that would benefit the Filipino people.
He mentioned the launch of the BSP last year of Instapay, an automated clearing house that is useful for e-commerce payments where people can just use a card or phone in paying any transactions.
InstaPay followed the successful launch in November 2017 of Peso Net, the first clearing house under the National Retail Payment System, as a part of its efforts to establish a safe, efficient and reliable payment framework in the country.
InstaPay is an electronic fund transfer service that allows customers to transfer peso funds almost instantly between accounts of participating banks supervised by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and non-bank e-money issuers in the country. The service is available 24 hours a day, all year round.
Diokno said the amendments to the charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas provided the regulator more power to expedite these financial inclusion efforts.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier signed into law Republic Act No. 11211 which amended RA 7653 or the New Central Bank Act. The new BSP charter embodies a package of reforms that will further align its operations with global best practices, improve the BSP’s corporate viability and enhance its capacity to craft proactive policies amid rising interlinkages in the financial markets and the broader economy.
“The BSP Charter amendment is critical to the financial inclusion efforts,” Diokno said.
