Monetary and Financial Agenda Towards Inclusion, Consumer Protection, and Innovation

Starting off from Chapter 11 (Ensure Macroeconomic Stability and Expand Inclusive and Innovative Finance) Subsection 1 (Ensure Macroeconomic Stability and Expand Inclusive and Innovative Finance) of the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 (PDP), we focus our research on Monetary and Financial Agenda Towards Inclusion, Consumer Protection, and Innovation. In Section IV, we revisit Republic Act 3765 or the Truth in Lending Act of 1963. In the spirit of consumer protection, we recommend regulations that are expected to improve transparency and empower consumers to make better informed decisions. In Section V, we use literature from behavioral finance on how regulators can nudge consumers to make better financial actions providing opportunities for inclusion and innovation. In Section VI, we discuss starting points for legislative discussion on how to protect retirees from financial and monetary matters as a complement and/or alternative to providing financial literacy programs. One in which our laws are relatively silent is on the treatment of whistleblowers. In Section VII, we discuss conventional practices on the treatment of whistleblowers in other jurisdictions to deter and/or catch nefarious agents and/or practices in the financial industry. In the last two sections, we acknowledge that prohibitively high interest rates on loans is a major hurdle towards inclusion. Part of the reason is that there are laws and/or regulations that charge financial institutions forcing them to pass on thecost to consumers.