The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it will actively expand bilateral relations with central banks in Central Asia starting with National Bank of Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR) which it recently signed a cooperation deal.
BSP and NBKR recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which took effect last Aug. 16.
The MOU involved both central banks’ cooperation in the field of central banking activities.
“The MOU provides an opportunity for the BSP to expand and strengthen bilateral relations with central bank partners in the Central Asia region,” the BSP said over the weekend.
It added that the MOU “affirms the commitment of both central banks to strengthen cooperation and to establish an arrangement for the exchange of information, capacity building, and research in key areas of central banking.”
“Through bilateral cooperation, the BSP and NBKR can leverage on each other’s approaches and methodologies in the areas of internal audit, corporate governance, and risk management, among others,” said the BSP.
NBKR is the central monetary authority of Kyrgyzstan. The Central Asian nation was formerly part of the Soviet Union until 1991 when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or USSR was reformed and broken up under the leadership of the late Mikhail Gorbachev.
Aside from Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia includes Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
BSP is one of the most vocal Asia Pacific central bank and active ASEAN-5 monetary authority in the region, especially on cross-border payments. It has bilateral relations in key areas such as in establishing interoperability.
BSP Governor Felipe M. Medalla said previously that in establishing interoperability of cross-border payments, central banks should address not only the technical issue of aligning the features of different payment systems, but also the non-technical challenges such as those relating to regulatory, supervisory and oversight frameworks, as well as anti-money laundering and data privacy related policies.
At the moment, the BSP is currently working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Bank Negara Malaysia in establishing bilateral linkages between the Philippines’ InstaPay with Singapore’s PayNow and Malaysia’s DuitNow.