BSP to deepen domestic money market amid financial integration

THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) is working to strengthen the domestic capital market and promote cross-border payments as financial markets become more integrated.

“The BSP is working to deepen the money market and introduce more market-oriented operations,” BSP Deputy Governor Zeno Ronald R. Abenoja said during the fourth ASEAN+3 Economic Cooperation and Financial Stability Forum held on Nov. 25 in Hong Kong.

He said the central bank wants to boost liquidity to improve monetary policy transmission and strengthen the Philippines’ integration into regional and global financial markets. These will also help ensure the integrity of the Philippine financial system amid global uncertainties and rapid digitalization.

In a report on Wednesday, the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office flagged the slow and limited transmission of the BSP’s monetary policy adjustments.

This comes even as it has been nearly a decade since the central bank adopted an interest rate corridor (IRC), which introduced the overnight lending facility and the overnight deposit facility alongside the target reverse repurchase rate. The IRC was designed to guide the short term market rates toward the central bank’s key interest rate.

During the forum, Mr. Abenoja also said that the Philippine central bank is open to the concept of tokenization for digital retail payments and remittances, adding that stablecoin technology could help make transactions faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

Stablecoins are pegged to a fiat currency or commodity to give it a stable value, unlike other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, which have volatile prices as they are not backed by assets.

In line with the Philippine Development Plan, the BSP wants digital payments to account for 60-70% of the total volume of retail payments by 2028.

The ASEAN+3 is made up of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam plus China, Japan and South Korea.

The central bank has said it will promote financial health within the region as part of the Philippines’ chairmanship of the ASEAN next year.

In 2026, the Philippines will also co-chair the ASEAN+3 Finance Process with Japan. — Katherine K. Chan