WE TALKED of the urgent need to expand banking services in our column on Wednesday last week.
We wish that new Bangko Sentral governor Benjamin Diokno include a program right at the start of his term to expand banking services and reach out to more people in the municipalities where there are no banks.
As an economist, we are sure he is familiar with the basic role of banks in the community where they are located. We have explained this before that a bank is like a dam that accumulates water from various sources to be held in a reservoir and meet the needs of the community for drinking, washing and other uses.
Similarly, money is accumulated by a bank as deposit from the area where it operates and later releases it by way of loans for various uses.
What was happening, however, during the terms of the two BSP Governors who preceded Mr. Diokno was that the Monetary Board of Bangko Sentral was closing banks even just for the slightest infraction of the rules instead of assisting them to rehabilitate their financial condition, if deficient, or correct their operation if there was something wrong.
In just one year and seven months of his term, the late BSP Gov. Nestor Espenila Jr. ordered seven banks closed for alleged violation of BSP rules. One of these banks, Banco Buena, with its head office in Iloilo City, was founded way back in 1971 and was in operation for 47 years. It had seven branches spread out in Iloilo, Capiz, Antique, Negros Occ., and Guimaras, and accumulated total deposits of P271.8 million owned by 9,845 depositors as of March 31, 2018. We could not understand why it was not rehabilitated and the big number of depositors conserved.
While Bangko Sentral itself said majority of Filipinos have no bank accounts and Finance secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III also pointing out that 86 percent of them remain unbanked, both parties do not walk their talk.
Can new BSP Gov. Benjamin Diokno put our acts together under his new leadership and expand banking services to every nook and corner of the country for all Filipinos to avail themselves of banking service, if desired?
If we do this, then we do not need to depend on foreign investment inflows to raise money for funding local projects. If the unbanked 86 percent of our countrymen can put their savings in local banks instead of keeping the money in their homes, then we believe there will be more than enough funds for the banks to channel for local lending and investment without anymore the need for our country to rely on foreign loans or investments.
We wish that new BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno can look into his new job in this direction to maximize the potentials of the service of banks in our country on a wider scale which his predecessors never did.
GEM OF THOUGHT
“You are what you think you are.” – Anonymous (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
