BSP to start reporting cross-border statistics to BIS this month

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will start reporting crossborder banking statistics to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) starting this month, joining a group of less than 50 jurisdictions worldwide.

After months of testing and validation, cross-border banking data maintained by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has been judged as meeting the rigorous BIS standards for completeness and quality," the central bank said in a statement on Sunday.

Established in 1930, the BIS is an international financial organization based in Basel, Switzerland. It was created to assist central banks to achieve monetary and financial stability, and to foster international cooperation.

"The BIS will formally add the Philippines as a reporting country for the locational IBS (international banking statistics) and start including Philippine data in the global aggregates (starting January 2018)," BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens was quoted as saying in the BSP statement.

"The participation of the Philippines in the IBS is a significant milestone (because) it confirms the international importance of the Philippine banking system," he added.

This was echoed by BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla, who said that the central bank would also benefit from the cross-border data included in the IBS.

"Our inclusion into the elite group provides us with more granular cross-border banking data that would be very critical in formulating well-informed policies when and how they may be needed," he said.

"The value to regulators of having such a view cannot be overemphasized in today's market," he added.