Fonacier named new central bank deputy governor

MANILA, Philippines -  The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced yesterday the appointment of a new deputy governor to fill the post vacated by now BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr.

Espenilla said the Monetary Board has approved the appointment of Chuchi Fonacier as deputy governor and head of the central bank’s Supervision and Examination Sector (SES) which is responsible for the regulation of banks and other BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFI).

“The MB approved the appointment of Chuchi Fonacier as my successor,” Espenilla said.

Fonacier will directly supervise the inclusive financial advocacy unit, technical services staff, administrative and operations group, and four sub-sectors that handle onsite examination and inspection, offsite supervision, financial literacy, consumer affairs, financial data collection and policy studies.

She joined BSP in 1984 as a bank examiner and has progressively worked her way to become assistant governor in 2017.

One of the highlights of Fonacier’s career as a central banker includes her designation as the BSP’s point person of the two important legislative measures passed by Congress – the Securitization Act and the Special Purpose Vehicle Act.

Both laws were instrumental in unloading banks’ non-performing assets and improving their financial position.

She also headed the BSP’s primary supervisory unit in 2008 that handles specially challenged banks where a record number of banks were successfully resolved.

She also pursued the development of various programs, in coordination with the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., aimed at strengthening the thrift, rural and cooperative banking sectors by encouraging mergers, consolidations and acquisition involving weak banks, the strengthening program for rural banks/ SPRB Plus; the strengthening program for cooperative banks/SPCB Plus and the consolidation program for rural banks.

Fonacier took up her Bachelor of Science in Commerce major in Accounting degree at the La Salle College – Bacolod and obtained her Master in Business Administration (MBA) at the Ateneo de Manila University.