UNIVERSITY of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) professor Dr. Jovi C. Dacanay and her research associates Ella Mae O. Leonida and Michaela Nicole Meriño, both masteral graduates of the UA&P School of Economics, have achieved a breakthrough into international publishing with their book Bank Competition and the Effects on Financial Stability: Insights into the Emerging Banking Markets of the Philippines. Carefully peer-reviewed, Palgrave Macmillan recently published the book as part of its series on Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions.

The book explores the stability and efficiency of Philippine universal and commercial banks with an industrial organization framework and application of econometric methods. The authors find broad stability and efficiency among Southeast Asian banks but focus more on Philippine banks. The book shows that the top 20 Philippine banks have sufficient market power, efficiency and stability that enabled them to withstand economic disruptions like the recent coronavirus pandemic. It is the result of five years of research by the authors on the topic.