BSP cited for fintech and regtech initiatives

LAST September 4, 2019 in Singapore, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) won awards in two categories—the Artificial Intelligence Initiative and Data Management Initiative—in the Central Banking Fintech and Regtech Global awards. It was the only institution to win in two categories for this awarding year.

The BSP won in the Artificial Intelligence Initiative category for its development of a prototype Chatbot to provide the public a more accessible and efficient means to engage the BSP on financial consumer concerns.

From the existing manual process to using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), the Chatbot will be able to adequately and efficiently handle consumer concerns coursed through channels including SMS and social media.

The Chatbot is also envisioned to equip the BSP with more insight into customer experiences, banking practices and conduct as input to policymaking and supervision and develop consumers’ trust in the financial system. The Chatbot is expected to go live in mid-2020.

The BSP also won in the Data Management Initiative category with the development of a prototype API-based prudential reporting system. This is part of BSP’s continuing effort to strengthen its supervisory capacity in a rapidly evolving financial services landscape.

By providing a machine-to-machine link between the banks’ core banking systems and BSP’s system, the system will allow for the streamlined transmission, processing, warehousing, and analysis of the banks’ prudential reports. This will significantly improve the timeliness, ease, and integrity of data submission.

From a pilot run covering two banks, it was expanded to cover 19 banks. Preparations are underway to move the system to cover all Universal, Commercial, and Thrift Banks for a total of 96 institutions.  The system is expected to go live in the latter part of 2020.

The Awards is organized by Central Banking Publications, a leading source of information of the central banking industry. Started in 2018, the Awards gives recognition to the significant initiatives of central banks and private sector entities in the Fintech and Regtech (regulatory technology) space. The winners are determined after deliberations by a judging panel composed of industry experts and former central bankers.

This year’s winners in the official categories include the Hong Kong Monetary Authority for Global Impact, Banque de France for Pioneer Award, the UK Prudential Regulation Authority for Techforward Award, Banco Central do Brasil for Best Sandbox Initiative, and the European Central Bank for Best Cyber Resilience Initiative.

Winners in the private sector categories include Frankfurt-based BearingPoint for Distributed Ledger Technology Provider Award, India-based Bonfleet for Financial Inclusion Technology, SkySparc for Best Technology Consultant Award, Vizor for Global Regtech Provider of the Year, and Token.io for Global Fintech Provider of the Year.

Governor Benjamin E. Diokno received the two awards on behalf of the BSP. In his acceptance remarks, the Governor stated “The BSP’s regtech journey has just begun. As with any initiative, we did not imagine receiving recognition or award when BSP embarked on this journey. The initiatives were born from BSP’s commitment to continue building its digital capabilities as a regulator intent on promoting innovations in the financial service sector to benefit the country and the people.”