4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  As it turned out, the ultimate investors did not fully understand the quality of the assets they were financing. Investors were lulled by triple-A credit ratings and by expected support from sponsoring institutions – support that was, in fact, discretionary and not always provided.
The BSP financial inclusion journey started in the 2000s with the adoption of microfinance as a flagship program for poverty alleviation. This was reinforced by the General Banking Law of 2000 that recognized microfinance as a unique banking activity. When the BSP embraced microfinance as an advocacy, it sought to expand access to credit among the entrepreneurial poor (e-poor).