Tetangco cites basic requirements for next BSP chief

Good understanding of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor’s job, patience and a knowledge of how to work with the central bank. (Photo: Amando Tetangco Jr./Facebook)

MANILA—Good understanding of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor’s job, patience and a knowledge of how to work with the central bank.

These are the top three competencies that the next BSP chief must have, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said.

Tetangco said the next central bank chief must have not only the knowledge but also experience on how to heed the BSP’s primary mandate of maintaining price stability and financial stability to ensure a balanced and sustainable growth for the domestic economy.

”Being knowledgeable in economics, monetary theory, as well as banking regulations would be very useful but these will have to be contextualized in terms of what the BSP is really supposed to do… that’s one major requirement – – a clear appreciation of the mandate and how to deliver on the mandate,” he said.

Tetangco said a BSP chief also needs to have patience “because there will be many challenges.”

He explained that “sometimes, the results that you are looking for cannot be achieved quickly but you have to keep on trying.”

“If you really believe that these are the reforms that are needed, then you have to pursue it and persevere. In this respect, it is important to be able to work with other government agencies because BSP is just one of the three to four regulators in the financial services industry,” he said.

Tetangco was referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Insurance Commission (IC) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), which he said had overlapping areas in terms of regulating different types of financial instruments.

He said the next central bank chief must also know how to work with these three agencies given that the BSP is a “solid institution.”

“I believe the BSP is ready for leadership because we have a solid institution. We have committed employees, highly-trained people who very closely identify themselves with the BSP brand to be able to deliver on the mandate. That is very clear. We also set in place our vision-mission, core values,” he said.

Tetangco said there were still lots of reforms that the BSP needed to implement such as some components of BASEL III and sharpening of the central bank’s surveillance tools, with the latter targeted to address impact of global and regional economic developments.

”Surveillance tools need to be further sharpened. We’ve been doing this for the past several years. We’ve set in place a number of early warning systems, indices to make sure we are able to capture the potential impact of external as well as local developments,” he said.

The BSP chief said a seamless transition in the BSP leadership would get a boost if the next central bank governor would be someone who had risen from the ranks because he was already familiar with the job.

“If the next governor will be an insider you have worked with him all these years so he’d be familiar. There’ll be no need for a letter but just a discussion about priorities or advice that could be given. Maybe for the sake of posterity… it’s not that necessary in our case if the next governor will be an insider,” he added.

Tetangco’s second six-year term will end on July 2, 2017.

Under the New Central Bank Act, the term of a BSP governor may only be extended once.

Tetangco was first appointed as BSP governor under the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005 and was re-appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2010.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte earlier said he favored a third term for the BSP governor position.