MANILA – – Fair competition among banking industry players got a boost following the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) Friday.
In a briefing, PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan said the pact with the central bank is the fourth for PCC, so far, and is aimed at ensuring ease of doing business among financial institutions.
“We want to avoid possibilities of overlaps in our processes, (the) unnecessary implications in the processes and (to) harmonize our procedures,” he said.
The PCC chief said they also aim to “be able to enforce the law well by sharing information to the extent allowed by applicable laws and our respective government agencies.”
“The critical element here is the facilitation of our processes in such as way that the processes are efficient and therefore will not undermine efficiency in business operations and at the same time will achieve our objective of promoting consumer welfare,” he said.
Based on the 2017-18 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum , the Philippines’ ranking slipped to 56th place from 57th place in the previous year, with inefficient government bureaucracy cited as the most problematic factor in the country.
Balisacan said competition and market efficiency were among the unfavorable aspects noted in the Philippines.
“With the robust enforcement of competition here we expect to address that and hopefully will help improve our competition in the global front,” he said.
Under the law, PCC is mandated to review mergers and acquisitions, among others, to make sure that consumers will not be disadvantaged by these.
Under the MOA, the BSP and the PCC will be sharing information on merger-related procedures and formulation of rules and issuances, among others.
BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier, during the same briefing, said the central bank fully supports PCC’s mandate because it penalizes all abuses in competitiveness agreements.
“The execution of this Memorandum of Agreement between the BSP and the PCC is therefore a necessary development in the performance of our mandates as it harmonizes the law and the rules that we respectively implement as head agencies and provides mechanisms to address issues and concerns related to or arising therefrom,” she said.
PCC’s MOA with the BSP is its fourth so far after the agreement with the Commission on Audit , the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Philippine Securities Commission.