Rafael Buenaventura

He died November 30, 2006, at age 68 following a protracted fight with cancer.

As a direct result of these actions, the Philippines was taken off of the FATF blacklist at the start of 2005.

Despite his popularity and record of success as governor, Buenaventura trumpeted years in advance that he had no intentions of accepting any other government position once his fixed term ended at the BSP. After six years, Buenaventura left his office on July 6, 2005, to his deputy, Amando Tetangco, Jr., one of the primary architects of the reforms instituted by his predecessor.

Through the political turmoil, Buenaventura doggedly persisted with his efforts to relieve the banking sector of its crippling burden of bad loans. Although the transition of power from Estrada to Arroyo interrupted congressional discussions on the issue, the talks eventually resumed, tracking the rescue plan outlined by the BSP and the Bankers Association of the Philippines. Finally, in 2003, congress passed the Special Purpose Vehicles Act, allowing banks to sell their bank loans at a discount and giving them regulatory incentives that made it easier to book the losses.

In 2003, Bloomberg columnist William Pesek, Jr. commented that the “64-year old Buenaventura has proven to be what the Philippine economy needs most: an adult in the room.”

In 2003, BusinessWeek’s sixth annual ‘Stars of Asia’ report chose Buenaventura as one of its five selected financiers, hailing him for maintaining strict economic discipline in the face of financial turmoil.

In 2002, when the government fell into another budget crisis that saw the public deficit widening to 220 billion pesos, political pressures mounted for the Philippine government to ask for debt relief. Buenaventura, however, was no less adamant and loud in his opposition to this suggestion than he had been toward shielding the peso or compromising the BSP's regulatory authority.

By the time his six-year term ended, Buenaventura had twice (2002, 2003) been named one of the world's top, or "Grade A" central bankers by the New York-based magazine Global Finance, reflecting the results of an annual survey of the world's central bankers based on their performance, effectiveness and general success in wielding monetary tools to steer their country's economy. The elite list included preeminent Australian central bank chief Ian Macfarlane and Poland's Leszek Balcerowicz.

But the process was halted when Estrada, Buenaventura's primary supporter and appointing power, was booted out of office during EDSA II, a popular uprising occurring in January, 2001. He was soon to be replaced by vice president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was catapulted by the opposition into power as the least offensive standard bearer. Barely two years at the helm of the BSP, Buenaventura had begun to feel pressures for him to resign and make way for an Arroyo-appointed BSP governor.

The debates lasted almost a year, with Buenaventura spending much of his time explaining international anti-money laundering laws and procedures, convincing lawmakers that the Philippines would be merely complying with standards already in use in the rest of the world. Finally, in September 2001 Congress agreed to pass the Anti-Money Laundering Act, which led to the creation of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, a body headed by the BSP and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Subsequent legislation in 2002 and 2003 implemented and strengthened the AMLA's mechanisms and measures.

In 2001, Buenaventura was also awarded “Central Bank Governor of the Year for the Asian Region” by The Banker magazine, a sister publication of the Financial Times. He was the first central banker to receive this award from The Banker, as it began an annual awards program for the first time in its 75-year history.

The BSP was also faced with another serious problem during Buenaventura's term: the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) had in June 2000 designated the Philippines as a ‘non-cooperative country’. A spot on the FATF blacklist essentially meant that a country was a prime candidate for the laundering of dirty funds from criminal activities. This translated to higher transaction costs, and often, outright restrictions on the international transactions of Philippine banks to ensure that they did not involve dirty money.

Buenaventura was offered various positions in government but politely declined them all until 1999, when Estrada once again offered him the position as BSP chief, in anticipation of Singson's end-of-term departure. Buenaventura would later explain that he and his siblings had made a promise to their late father that none of them would ever work in government. It was only after persistent convincing from Estrada himself and then finance secretary Jose Trinidad Pardo, a close adviser of the president and friend to Buenaventura himself, that Buenaventura was ultimately persuaded to accept the appointment to take over the BSP.

Two months before Singson's term ended, Buenaventura's appointment as central bank governor was announced by Estrada; and when his PCIB contract ended in June that year, he elected not to renew. On July 6, 1999, Buenaventura took over as the second governor of the BSP.

In 1998, while Buenaventura was still head of PCIB, his old schoolmate, Joseph Estrada, was elected president of the country. Buenaventura was subsequently asked to head the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine central monetary authority, as central bank governor. The incumbent governor of the BSP, Gabriel C. Singson, had turned in his courtesy resignation, but the financial market was already in turmoil following the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. Removing the incumbent central bank chief would have added uncertainty in an already jittery market, so Buenaventura promptly turned down the offer.

The banking industry proved more enthusiastic about Buenaventura's appointment as BSP governor than Buenaventura himself expected. It had good reason: Buenaventura was taking over the position at a time when the industry was in deep trouble, having accumulated a gargantuan portfolio of bad loans that, in the face of the Asian financial crisis, threatened to collapse the entire financial system. Moreover, the industry was on the threshold of increasing globalization, and required radical shifts in regulatory policies in order to comply with global standards. The Enron scandal had happened continents away, but its reverberations in a market already weakened by the 1997 financial crisis necessitated rapid action to plug regulatory loopholes while still allowing the rule of market forces.

Buenaventura was then tapped by John Gokongwei, chairman of the massive Philippine conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, to head its Philippine Commercial International Bank (PCIB). Buenaventura served as PCIB's president and chief executive officer for ten years; during this time he also served as President of the Bankers Association of the Philippines (1994-1997) and Chairman of the ASEAN Banking Council (1996-1997).

After his stint as Citibank chief in the Philippines, Buenaventura next served as Senior Vice President and Division Executive for Southern Europe, responsible for Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Turkey (1985-1989).

As Chief Executive of Citibank Philippines, Buenaventura had his first serious involvement in macroeconomic planning. In the early 1980s, the Philippines had descended into a debt crisis, and urgently required massive restructuring of its heavy debt burden. A member of the committee of private and government experts that were charged with negotiating the restructuring, Buenaventura played a central role in the crisis' resolution.

By 1974, Buenaventura had been appointed Citibank Chief Executive in Indonesia. Two years later, in 1976, he was assigned to head the bank's Malaysian operations, also as Chief Executive. He would hold this position until 1979, at which time he was given the post of Senior Vice President and Regional Treasurer in Hong Kong. There, for the next three years, he managed Citibank's treasury activities in twelve countries. In 1982, Buenaventura returned home to become the first Filipino Chief Executive Officer of Citibank Philippines, a position he would hold until the end of his tenure in 1985.

Buenaventura, who often described his banking career as “serendipitous”, began as a credit investigator while in his senior year in college, at the Security Bank. Upon graduation, Buenaventura secured a management trainee position at Citibank’s operations in Manila. He rapidly ascended, holding many senior positions in the bank, and was eventually appointed Merchant Bank Head in Citibank's Singapore operations in 1972, just before the declaration of martial law by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

In 1965, Buenaventura married Fairley "Lee" Earl, an American writer whom he had met during his student days in New York City. They had three children (Paul, Deanna, and Melissa) and, at the time of Buenaventura's death, two grandchildren. (Pablo and Carlos)

Rafael Carlos Baltazar Buenaventura (August 5, 1938 – November 30, 2006) was a prominent banker in the Philippines who served as the second Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (from 1999 to 2005); he served under two Philippine presidents during one of the most tumultuous political transitions in the country's history.