BSP to boost research capability for sustainable financial sector

By Cai U. Ordinario

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) intends to strengthen its research capabilities in its quest to deepen capital markets to make the financial sector sustainable.

In a conversation with Nomura’s Euben Paracuelles, BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said the move will be undertaken to further the central bank’s financial inclusion efforts.

Remolona said this would also complement the BSP’s efforts to “obsess” over price and financial stability, which can be done by improving the payments system and digitalization efforts.

“Because of my background, I want to strengthen the research capabilities of BSP, and look at our models more carefully. We also want to deepen capital markets to improve the policy transmission mechanism. We will be more serious about sustainability issues and their link to financial inclusion,” Remolona said.

Earlier, Remolona said the BSP is committed to contributing to the country’s efforts to achieve net zero through its 11 sustainability strategies.

One of these is to mandate banks to make climate-related disclosures. He explained that banks would be tasked to report which of their loans and assets is good, bad, or worse for the climate.

The taxonomy to be used for this disclosure system, Remolona said, is being crafted together with climate scientists. Some of the questions that will be asked include whether bank’s loans or assets slow down or accelerate climate change and promote carbon emissions or absorb carbon emissions.

Each metric, Remolona explained, will be weighted allowing the BSP to give each bank an overall rating in terms of its role in climate change.

The 11 sustainability strategies of BSP include vulnerability assessments; enhanced disclosures; climate stress testing; environmental and sustainability risk in prudential policy; and climate change in monetary policy.

The strategies also include incentives for green lending; sustainability in BSP’s portfolio and risk management; task force for inclusive green finance; sustainability in BSP’s operations; and capacity building.

In its maiden Sustainability Report, the BSP outlined its progress in advancing the sustainability agenda in the Philippine financial system toward creating more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient societies and economies.

The BSP said demonetized and mutilated banknotes undergo a shedding process that allow these to be converted into briquettes that can be used as alternative fuel source for biomass gasification facilities.

BSP said its regional office in Greater

Manila generated a total of 1.17 million kilo grants of briquetted banknotes that were properly disposed of and re-used as an alternative fuel source.

The central bank also entered into a contract with a service provider that will use the briquetted retired banknotes, banknotes securities waste, and other non-briquetted security waste as alternative fuel for cement manufacturing, instead of using coal and other types of fuel fossils.

District Rep. Ana York Bondoc’s reaction to the proposed solution.

“I am embarrassed about Congresswoman Bondoc’s agitated behavior and she obviously did not understand the national government’s suggestion. Dredging, as the congresswoman suggested, is just a temporary solution and very costly,” Pelayo said. “Her behavior was inciting and very unbecoming of a hospitable Kapampangan,” he added.

Pelayo urged all stakeholders to consider the long-term benefits of the project over temporary and costly measures. He also called for unity and cooperation among local leaders to closely monitor each local government unit’s solid waste management in order to avoid dumping garbage along waterways, and effectively address the recurrent flooding issue in the region.

The former mayor’s endorsement of President Marcos Jr.’s plan underscores his commitment to practical and sustainable solutions to local problems, and his belief in the potential of Candaba and the larger Pampanga region.

THE Social Security System (SSS) said it issued on Friday notices of violation (NOV) to eight “delinquent” employers in the Makati Central Business District (CBD) with a P6.64 million total estimated delinquencies.

The SSS said the delinquencies consist of P4.69 million in unpaid contributions and P1.95 million in penalties, which affected the monthly contributions of about 152 employees.

The issuance of the NOVs was part of the SSS’s Run After Contribution Evaders (RACE) campaign that seeks to “ensure that employers are complying with their obligations” as stipulated in the Social Security Act of 2018.

The SSS’s Makati Chino Roces Branch was the one that issued the NOVs to the erring employers involved in various fields of business.

Based on the breakdown provided by the SSS, two employers were in the business of management consultancy, while the others were scattered across other industries such as a specialized store of household items, wholesaler of miscellaneous consumer goods, business support service, restaurant, general merchandise, washing and dry cleaning business.

SSS said all eight employers were found out not to be remitting their share of monthly contributions for their employees.

“Among the eight delinquent employers, a management consultancy establishment incurred the highest contribution delinquency of P2.95 million, broken down into P1.46 million unpaid workers’ contributions and P1.49 million penalties,” the SSS said.

“Based on SSS records, the establishment failed to remit the social security contributions of its six employees from July 2011 to April 2023,” the SSS added. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas

₧1.7 trillion allotted for Visayas infra flagship projects–Diokno

THE Department of Finance (DOF) said a third of the national government’s (NG) infrastructure flagship projects (IFPs) would be implemented in the Visayas with an estimated total cost of P1.7 trillion.

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said some 65 IFPs are located in Visayas, about 33.5 percent of the state’s 194 “high-impact” IFPs nationwide.

Diokno said the IFPs in Visayas include the Cebu Public Transport Modernization Project, the Metro Cebu Expressway, the Panay-Guimaras-Negros Inter-Island Link Bridge, the Samar Pacific Coastal Road Project, and the New Dumaguete Airport Development Project.

“With its high multiplier effects, infrastructure investments will help reduce energy costs, ensure water security, and improve access to people, goods, services, and information,” Diokno said during the Philippine Economic Briefing in Cebu on Friday.

Diokno cited Cebu’s contribution to the country’s overall tourism industry, noting the province’s “potential to become a major player in the arena of sustainable tourism.”

“The award-winning Mactan-Cebu International Airport serves as the main gateway to the Southern Philippines, with a capacity of up to 11 million passengers per year,” he said.

“More impressively, it is also the country’s first solar-powered airport and bans single-use plastics among its concessionaires,” he added.

The finance chief pointed out that the opening of the largest National Museum of the Philippines in Visayas in Cebu would further boost the province’s and the region’s tourism industries.

“This landmark is an exciting new addition to the long list of reasons to visit this part of the country and experience the many wonders it has to offer,” Diokno said. Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas