{"id":108835,"date":"2017-07-30T20:59:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T00:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=108835"},"modified":"2017-07-30T20:59:14","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T00:59:14","slug":"bsp-chief-eyes-more-forex-liberalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/07\/30\/bsp-chief-eyes-more-forex-liberalization\/","title":{"rendered":"BSP chief eyes more forex liberalization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
FILE: The central bank chief said the reforms he intends to pursue aims to make foreign exchange transactions “more risk-based but transparent.” (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, July 31\u2014 \u00a0Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. vows further foreign exchange liberalization to help address rising financing requirements of the domestic economy.<\/p>\n

Espenilla said bank lending continues to be robust but noted that these financial institutions cannot sufficiently fund increasing needs, thus, the need to also support the local currency debt market.<\/p>\n

“We believe this is a crucial component to sustain the economy\u2019s growth momentum,” he said.<\/p>\n

Espenilla said monetary officials also bid to develop the domestic debt market due in part to the developments in the foreign exchange market.<\/p>\n

To date, the peso is trading its near 11-year low to a greenback at around 50-level.<\/p>\n

Espenilla said daily peso-dollar trading volume averages to around USD600 million to date but cited that when the central bank started to collect data, the volume reaches to more than USD1 billion.<\/p>\n

“For transactions to be happening in the unregulated parallel markets, this has got to change,” he pointed out, thus, the needed reforms.<\/p>\n

The central bank chief said the reforms he intends to pursue aims to make foreign exchange transactions “more risk-based but transparent.”<\/p>\n

He said that “notwithstanding the waves of liberalization that the BSP has announced in the past, we recognize that the foreign exchange market today remains restrictive, difficult, opaque, shallow.”<\/p>\n

“It is a throwback to time when fx (foreign exchange) was scarce and reserves were meager and market confidence was very low,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Today, it\u2019s an entirely different picture. To preserve those kinds of rules in a market that is rapidly growing is to impede the growth of market itself. It simply adds to cost of doing business and just creates a bigger and bigger black market,” he said.<\/p>\n

Espenilla, who assumed his post on July 3, 2017, said foreign exchange liberalization will be “a very important focus of my term.”<\/p>\n

“We will also continue to reshape the financial system so that it is truly responsive to the needs of the domestic economy. Here we have to recognize technology,” he added.<\/p>\n

The last foreign exchange liberalization of the BSP was implemented in August 2016, which allowed Filipinos to buy as much as USD500,000 from banks without supporting documents from USD120,000 previously.<\/p>\n

Limit for foreign exchange purchase of corporates was hiked to USD1 million.<\/p>\n

It is the 11th forex liberalization of the central bank. (Joann S. Villanueva\/PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, July 31\u2014 \u00a0Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. vows further foreign exchange liberalization to help address …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":108571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1145,95],"tags":[1216,11701,20004],"class_list":["post-108835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-bangko-sentral-ng-pilipinas","tag-central-bank","tag-governor-nestor-espenilla-jr","mauthors-joann-s-villanueva","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}