You and the members BSMA are responsible for providing the highest level of protection to Philippine banking institutions in general and to bank employees and clients in particular. For the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas therefore, you represent a vital component of our continuing efforts to ensure the health and stability of our banking system.
For the past 25 years, our net household savings as a percentage of household disposable income averaged minus two and a quarter percent – the lowest in the OECD (where data are available), and 10 percentage points below the OECD median. Our desire for such high levels of consumption was met by borrowing the savings of foreigners.