The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy-making Monetary Board (MB) will have two new members while the term of current MB member and former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla has been extended for another six years.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said President Duterte has named former Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila and banker Dr. Antonio S. Abacan Jr. as new MB members.
He said Abacan and Favila will replace MB members Armando Suratos and Alfredo Antonio, former Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) chair, whose terms ended July 3, same as that of outgoing BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr, who served two six-year terms.
The MB, chaired by the BSP Governor, is composed of seven members.
The current MB members are Dominguez, Juan De Zuniga Jr., former BSP Assistant Governor and General Counsel; and Valentin Araneta, former Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) President.
Medalla graduated from De La Salle University (DLSU) with a degree in Economics and Accounting. He finished his masteral degree in Economics in the University of the Philippines (UP) and Doctorate in Economics from Northwestern University.
Among the positions he has held are Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) from July 1998 to January 2001, dean of the University of the Philippines’ (UP) School of Economics, Director of Philippine National Oil Corporation-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) and independent director of the Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC).
Medalla’s latest MB appointment is his second term after his stint from 2008 to 2014.
Favilla, in turn, graduated from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Commerce Major in Banking and Finance and a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Aside from the MB post, the former DTI chief served as president of Allied Banking Corp. and president-CEO of Philippine National Bank (PNB), consultant to the BSP and CDC Holdings Inc. and was chairman-president of the Philippine Stock Exchange from 2001 to 2005.
Abacan, meanwhile, finished his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, major in Banking and Finance from the Mapua Institute of Technology and in Accounting from the Far Eastern University (FEU). He received his Doctorate in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) from the Philippine Women’s University and is a graduate of the Executive Program of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1991.
He has served as president of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank) from 1993 to April 2006 and the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) and Unibancard Corp. from 1988 to 1991 and the current group vice chairman of the Metrobank Group.