Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr. tackled global economic risks and digital cross-border payments with other central banks’ leaders at the 29th Executives’ Meeting of East Asia-Pacific (EMEAP) Central Banks Governors’ Meeting in Penang, Malaysia.

In a statement on Tuesday, the BSP said the governors discussed policies on inflation management, capital flows, and information technology last Monday.

The governors’ meeting was facilitated by Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour.

“The governors’ meeting revolved around increasing funds for climate change mitigation in emerging economies; they also shared their views on the effectiveness of policy tools deployed to complement traditional macroeconomic policies and manage spillovers from external uncertainties,” BSP said.

Hawkish stance

That statement followed an announcement by the BSP on keeping a hawkish stance for monetary policy to reduce inflation amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the war between Russia and Ukraine.

In terms of capital markets, Remolona also said that the BSP has started coordinating with the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand access of businesses to capital from emerging markets funds.

“Our corporate bond market is small; to be able to issue, you have to be triple A or double A rated. That’s not a corporate bond market,” Remolona said.

“Deeper capital markets essentially mean it is cheaper for businesses and investments to finance themselves. You will have a financing source that will compete with the banks,” he added.

Apart from these, the BSP in February issued the Philippine Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Guidelines.

“It provides high-level guidance in determining the greenness of an investment,” Remolona said.

Nexus blueprint

More recently, the BSP announced this month that it already completed the blueprint for the third phase of Nexus which is a single payments platform for Southeast Asian countries.

Such blueprint was made possible in partnership with the Central Bank of Malaysia, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank of Thailand, and Bank for International Settlements. This prepares the Nexus for its live implementation.

“The governors welcomed the progress of EMEAP initiatives in the areas of financial markets, banking supervision and resolution, payments and market infrastructure and information technology,” BSP said.

The EMEAP was established in 1991 and also consists of the Reserve Bank of Australia, People’s Bank of China, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Bank Indonesia, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, and Reserve Bank of New Zealand.