Asian Investment Conference 2021

Governor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Benjamin Diokno is Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Prior to his appointment, he served as Budget Secretary in three different administrations.

As Governor, he not only pursues the promotion of the BSP mandates of price stability, financial stability, and an efficient payments and settlements system, but also endeavors to bring central banking closer to the people. He is a champion of digital payments and financial inclusion and is focused on achieving his twin goals of shifting 50% of retail payment transactions to digital form and achieving 70% transaction account ownership among adult Filipinos. Dr. Diokno is also a strong advocate of the Philippine ID System.

His policy expertise and research contribution extend to various areas of public economics, such as the structure and scope of government, tax policies and reforms, public expenditure management analysis, fiscal decentralization, national budget and public debt, among other topics. He has extensive experience in implementing reforms in the public sector, having also served as Budget Undersecretary from 1986 to 1991 and Budget Secretary from 1998 to 2001.

Dr. Diokno has a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration (1968) and a Master's degree in Public Administration (1970) and Economics (1974) from the University of the Philippines. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Political Economy (1976) from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and a Ph.D. in Economics (1981) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, USA.