 |
| Nestor Espenilla Jr's hamster-cheeked grin masks a tough individual |
Nesting, as he is known to his friends, has been with the BSP for 36 years, and is an admired lieutenant of much-loved departing governor Amando Tetangco Jr.
Behind closed doors, however, there are probably a few who aren’t so pleased to see Espenilla in the top job. As deputy governor for banking supervision and regulation, he took on a lot of villains, and his hamster-cheeked grin masks a tough individual.
Among the institutions that might not be raising a glass to his promotion is RCBC, controlled by the powerful Yuchengco family. Espenilla hit the bank with a P1 billion fine over the $81 million Bangladesh bank heist, some of which passed through RCBC accounts.
Another might be Roberto Ongpin – the trade secretary under Ferdinand Marcos – who can’t stand Espenilla after the Anti-Money Laundering Council, under Espenilla’s chairmanship, froze Ongpin and his companies’ bank accounts over irregularities in Ongpin’s purchase of Philex Mining shares in 2009.
A third could be the Aguirre family, whose bank Banco Filipino was closed at Espenilla’s insistence in 2011.