Former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Governor has stepped down to hand over the leadership of the central bank to Felipe M. Medalla.
A Monetary Board member since 2011, Governor Medalla is a seasoned economist and professor whose career in public service spans more than four decades and the administrations of four presidents.
He is the sixth Governor of the BSP and will serve the unexpired term of former Governor Diokno.
Meanwhile, Diokno has been appointed as the Finance Secretary where he will be heading the economic team. According to a CNBC report, he will be focused on getting back the Philippines’ growth trajectory before the crisis.
Diokno has been instrumental in pushing forward the country’s financial inclusion with the roll out of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) 2022-2028.
BSP’s aim is to onboard 70% of the adult Filipino population into the financial ecosystem by the year 2023. According to BSP, currently 41 million of adult Filipinos have access to basic bank accounts and e-money accounts as of the third quarter of last year.
He also spearheaded the central bank’s digital banking framework where six licenses were given out to Overseas Filipino Bank, Tonik, UnionDigital of UnionBank Corp, UNOBank, GOTyme, and Maya Bank.
