Citi Philippines CEO Batara Sianturi presented opportunities and challenges facing the country with the impending ASEAN financial integration
Over 400 top finance professionals came together at the 6th Annual Corporate Treasury & CFO Summit (CTCFO) held on August 7 at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati City.
CFOs, corporate treasurers, and treasury and cash management professionals were only some of the participants in attendance during the whole-day discussion of strategies in treasury, funding, cash management, governance, regulation, risk and compliance, and professional development in the financial sector of the Philippines, regarded as one of Asia’s leading emerging economies.
Citi Philippines CEO Batara Sianturi was invited to be a resource speaker on the impending ASEAN financial integration and he presented on the topic “How will the Philippines feature and compete?”
“While one should not expect a big bang to happen in 2015 with the ASEAN financial integration, clearly, it will start to have long-term implications to the Philippine banking sector,” stated Sianturi. He discussed the key changes that the ASEAN merger will bring about, especially in the light of the recently passed Foreign Bank Liberalization Act for the Philippines. “There are opportunities such as the enhancement of the state of banking systems and technology in the country as well as challenges due to increasing cost of capital and efficiencies for banks.”
“ASEAN is aligned with three long-term global trends,” he added. “These are globalization, urbanization, and digitization, and Citi has identified these trends for some time now and have aligned our global businesses to support these.” In closing, Sianturi offered this observation: “The Philippine banking sector is under-penetrated. Domestic opportunities remain huge versus the need to expand regionally.”
This is not the first time Sianturi talked about the impact of ASEAN financial integration to the Philippine banking sector. In June, he was invited to a panel discussion hosted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas where Sianturi participated alongside Asian Development Bank and the national research think-tank to assess the implications of the ASEAN financial integration to the Philippine banking sector. In March, he joined regional executives for the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce Spring Summit in tackling Asia’s and ASEAN’s resurgence and America’s role in driving sustainable prosperity.
At the 6th CTCFO Summit, Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran opened the morning session with a primer on the current state of the country’s economy; while the afternoon’s keynote speaker was Philippine Stock Exchange President and CEO Hans Sicat who shared his institution’s view on corporate governance.
Other speakers tackled a wide range of issues such as tax regulation, understanding the corporate bond market, as well as technological advancements that affect the finance industry, like electronic money and cloud computing. Delegates made good use of the breaks, networking and mingling with their counterparts from various businesses and the public sector.
The 6th CTCFO Summit was presented by The Corporate Treasurer and FinanceAsia, two Hong Kong-based magazines published by Haymarket Financial Media. Citi supported the affair as international bank sponsor.