The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has set up a Research Academy that will boost BSP’s readiness to handle, keep track of, and regulate digital currencies and artificial intelligence (AI).
“The BSP is looking at the implications of new technologies such as digital currencies and AI on the future of central banking, the financial system and the macroeconomy,” according to BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno.
Diokno, who is an economist and taught as a professor for 40 years at the University of the Philippines, said that this year until 2023, the BSP research units will cover emerging developments and challenges in central banking.
“Amid emerging risks, challenges, and opportunities -- central bank policy frameworks, operations, and regulations must evolve. The consequences of central bank policies in the ever-changing economic environment are perpetual areas of interest to the BSP,” said Diokno.
He said the Research Academy will produce research that is collaborative and of “high quality” – “meaning it is relevant, valued and rigorous -- but sustainable as well.”
“As such, the research produced by the BSP should be able to provide strong conceptual and empirical basis for policy-making,” Diokno added.
The Research Academy’s research agenda includes central bank policy framework and operations; structural changes and central bank policies; regulations and market structures; new technologies and implications for the future of central banking; the financial system and the macroeconomy; and financial inclusion and central banking.
The newly-created BSP research group will also look into other emerging issues such as the employment and income distribution effects of COVID-19. “Of course, as emerging issues evolve, our research areas expand. For instance, we have ongoing research endeavors on the employment and income redistributive effects of the pandemic,” said Diokno.
The Research Academy will be headed by BSP Deputy Governor Ma. Almasara Cyd Tuano-Amador. The BSP has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Philippine Institute of Development Studies and the Philippine Center for Economic Development (PCED) to further enhance research collaboration between the BSP, PCED and PIDS.
“We are likewise in the process of signing another MOU with the Agricultural Credit Policy Council,” said Diokno.
The Research Academy is hosting the first BSP Research Fair in July this year.