Its acquisition of Citi’s retail banking business in the Philippines has proven to be a challenge. It has put pressure on the bank’s capital buffers, while Citi’s high-end customers have shown a preference for international players.

Mamerto Tangonan, the deputy governor and head of the payments and currency management sector at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, tells Euromoney how southeast Asian countries are using advances in digital payments to revolutionize cross-border transactions.

Maharlika Investments Fund looks like it will be a development vehicle that takes Indonesia for inspiration.

The purchase of Home Credit’s businesses in the Philippines and Indonesia fits with a trend to seek growth outside Japan.

The top ranks of Philippine finance are shuffling after the election of Bongbong Marcos as president. Felipe Medalla takes the reins at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, where he faces a challenge in fostering economic recovery while keeping inflation from getting out of hand.

The Duterte presidency had many problems, but it gave the Philippine central bank and finance ministry room to enact significant change in tax, digital reach, infrastructure and fiscal policy. OF Bank will be among its legacies.

Analysts are keeping a close eye on regional as well as US monetary policy as they attempt to plot a course for the currencies of the countries that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

A new programme announced at COP26 plans to speed up progress away from coal-fired power in Indonesia and the Philippines by buying out plants, shutting them down, and helping to provide a cleaner alternative.

In May, Benjamin Diokno, governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), proudly announced the formation of a new ‘bad bank’ asset management company regime under the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Act - known by the bold and bracing acronym, FIST.

The ‘bad bank’ asset management company recently launched in the Philippines has not just been designed to make life easier for the banks, it could boost growth as well.

Rather than just handling payments, one mobile-phone technology entrepreneur wants to extend small lines of short-term credit to the financially excluded.

Attorney Mel Georgie Racela runs the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat in the Philippines, one of two agencies tasked with getting to the bottom with the country’s involvement in the Wirecard scandal. He talks to Chris Wright.

The country’s response to the scandal is a chance to show good governance.

The head of UnionBank of the Philippines tells Euromoney that Covid-19 will spell the end of cash and boost the prospects of banks that offer customers the best digital banking services.

The ADB’s policy chief tells Euromoney the Manila multilateral is ready for the worst, but wonders what world will emerge from Covid-19, as sovereign states balk at funding needs, and commercial banks step back from funding infrastructure.

When the Philippines needed a new central bank governor earlier this year, no one expected the president to pick an outsider for the job. During his first months in office, Benjamin Diokno has promised – and started – to deliver measures to spur expansion.

As part of Euromoney's 50th anniversary coverage, we profile some of the biggest names that we interviewed for our May Asia focus.

Vast infrastructure initiative taking shape, minister says; insists PPP will be used, not just Chinese soft loans.

Why is nobody in Asia worrying about trade wars and rate hikes?

Before taking the top job at the Philippine central bank, Nestor Espenilla Jr was known for his toughness on financial crime – now he says he is enabling the banking system to go from strength to strength… providing it sticks to the rules.

In April Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte took a characteristically drastic step. He closed Boracay. It is an indication of the environmental threat from marine pollution. Can the private sector help clean up the seas?

Cesar Purisima was secretary of finance of the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan devastated much of the country. It was a lesson he hadn’t forgotten when he became the founding chair of the V20, a vehicle for the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations to speak collectively.

Reaction to Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s appointment of Nestor Espenilla Jr as the new governor of the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has been publicly positive.

Asian banks are increasingly proving themselves to be much more than just volume-hungry lenders.

After the success of the first phase of the Philippines’ local debt consolidation programme, the republic’s treasurer, Omar Cruz, announced in August the launch of an additional debt exchange offer.