Jun Vallecera

Much had been said of Fernando as public servant, disciplinarian, science believer, father, friend and transformer of communities, and they are all good. We believe in the tenets he lived by and the values he prized while breaking bread with us one day each week at Tuesday Club.

The country's big commercial and universal banks extended loans just shy of P11 trillion in July this year, marginally lower than the previous June when these same loans aggregated P10.985 trillion, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The monetary authorities on Friday acknowledged the problematic state of financial inclusion in islands across the country that do not have a reliable connection to the internet and how this impacts on the broad goal of onboarding Filipinos to the government's digital transformation program.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept the rate at which it borrows from and lends to banks unchanged on Thursday at 6.25 percent but made it perfectly clear the policy-making monetary board will act as quickly as at its next rate-setting meeting in November and raise the polic ratey should this be warranted.

Global credit watcher Fitch Ratings has recalibrated the year's reinsurance outlook to "improving" from "neutral" a while earlier to reflect the sector's strengthening financial performance going into 2024.