BSP adopts intl standard for managing external debt

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced on Monday that it has adopted an international standard for external debt management.

In a statement, the Central Bank said it has completed the enhancement of its external debt monitoring and analysis by shifting to the later version of the Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS).

The BSP said the move is in line with its mandate on external debt management and with recent technological developments in the country and across the globe.

The DMFAS is a database software developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) used for recording, monitoring, reporting and analysis of debt data that are aligned with international standards and rigorous set of validation checks to ensure consistency of records.

According to the Central Bank, the DMFAS is currently in use by 105 finance ministries, central banks, and other debt management offices in 69 countries.

“[The] DMFAS serves as the primary database of the BSP for the preparation of comprehensive external debt statistics for operational and policy purposes, as well as for general dissemination to domestic and international stakeholders,” the BSP’S statement read.

The DMFAS 6 has strengthened security to ensure data integrity and confidentiality and an enhanced user experience and navigation. It also offers enhanced analytical and managerial tools for debt portfolio analysis and reporting.

“The upgrade to DMFAS 6 is expected to improve and expand BSP’S operations with the use of available DMFAS data sets in generating prebuilt and user-defined reports,” the BSP said.

“Going forward, the BSP will continue its data-driven initiatives by expanding the coverage of the DMFAS database and analysis through possible integration with other external debt data sources,” it added.