Bankero Tony Moncupa Jr. of Gotianun-led East West Banking Corp. has been elected as new president of the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP), as the country’s banking sector recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moncupa said the BAP would continue to work very closely with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), other regulatory agencies and Congress to contribute to our shared interest for an efficient, strong, and well functioning banking system.
“Through the years, our agenda in the BAP is to seek better banking efficiency, through modernization that we now call digitalization, better fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives markets, and safe and trustworthy banking. These are necessary preconditions that improve commerce, create jobs, and increase economic output,” Moncupa said.
Moncupa replaces bankero Wick Veloso who is president and CEO of Lucio Tan-led Philippine National Bank (PNB).
“With the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, US rate hikes and tapering, global inflation, and a new Philippine president, we have some very interesting days ahead,” Moncupa said.
For his part, Veloso highlighted the banking industry’s resilience in light of the ongoing economic situation.
The Philippines exited the pandemic-induced recession with a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.6 percent last year after contracting by 9.6 percent in 2020 due to the impact of the global health crisis.
“The banking industry performed even better than expected coming out from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Veloso said as the industry booked an asset base of P20.8 trillion and earnings amounting to P224 billion.
BAP managing director Benjamin Castillo also emphasized the industry’s proactiveness in serving the interests of the banking stakeholders.
BAP member-banks also elected the following bankeros as officers Landbank’s Cecilia Borromeo as first vice president, ING Bank’s Hans Sicat as second vice president, Security Bank’s Sanjiv Vohra as secretary, and BPI’s TG Limcaoco as treasurer.
