MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has added a new deputy governor with expertise in digital payments, as part of efforts to transform the country from a cash-heavy into a cash-light economy and a coinless society over the next five years.
Mamerto Tangonan, a digital financial services expert with over 20 years of experience, has been named as the fourth deputy governor of the BSP.
Tangonan now heads the BSP’s Payments and Currency Management Sector.
He joins Deputy Governors Francisco Dakila Jr. of the Monetary and Economics Sector, Chuchi Fonacier of the Financial Supervision Sector, and Maria Almasara Cyd Tuaño-Amador of the Corporate Services Sector.
Tangonan’s career spans across the financial services, mobile telecommunications, information technology (IT) consulting and development industries with expertise in operations, technology, agricultural finance, business development and project management.
Prior to his appointment, Tangonan was chief of party of the USAID-Philippines’ E-PESO Activity, which supported the development of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS) launched by the BSP in December 2015.
He led the three-year USAID program on Scaling Innovations in Mobile Money (SIMM) in the Philippines that developed a successful model for creating e-money ecosystems in cities and municipalities and with the full support of the BSP.
Before joining USAID E-PESO, he was the country director for Tanzania of Agrifin Accelerate Program at Mercy Corps.
He also served as vice president of ING Life Insurance Company, Ayala-led Globe Telecom where he managed the development of G-Cash mobile banking service for rural banks.
He also served as general manager of PT Smart Telecom (Indonesia) where he facilitated the implementation of mobile commerce and banking platforms and led the commercial implementation of the Andara Link electronic payment service platform as part of International Finance Corp. in Indonesia.
He has established key stakeholder relationships with banks, government entities, non-government organizations (NGOs), and private sector businesses and has established and maintained necessary public and private sector partnerships to ensure the successful development of business enabling environment and inclusive regulatory frameworks for e-Payments.
Tangonan holds an Executive MBA degree from the Asian Institute of Management and a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of the Philippines.