The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) reaffirmed the central bank’s previous statement that there were no peso-US dollar trading that went on last Tuesday, July 20, which was a holiday.
“(There was) no official US dollar-Philippine peso rates (that) were published on July 20, 2021 as the foreign exchange interbank spot market is closed,” said the BAP. The government has declared July 20 as a regular Philippine holiday for the Muslims’ Eid al-Adha.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said on Wednesday that a price error or a glitch was what occurred when the peso had a “flash crash” from P50-level to P43 from a foreign exchange trading app.
“That someone would be willing to trade at these off market prices using these apps can warrant further investigation,” said Diokno.
Diokno said the only official exchange rate source feed is Bloomberg or BAP while foreign exchange platforms such as Bloomberg and Reuters are used by the BSP for market data sources.
“We highly doubt that there were any material transactions dealt at those rates as these would definitely be ‘off market’ and would be subjected to internal reviews of these platforms,” said Diokno on Wednesday.