By the time Buenaventura became central bank governor, over fifteen percent of the total loan portfolio of the entire banking sector was considered non-performing loans. Within the next year, this peaked at seventeen percent. The need to unload these bad loans before they collapsed the industry spurred the BSP-led lobby for the Special Purpose Vehicles Act, a law that would allow banks to sell their bad loans at a discount to companies that specialized in taking over bad loans and turning them around. Carefully orchestrating the lobby before both houses of Congress, Buenaventura led the efforts for the passage of the law, telling lawmakers that the banking industry needed the flexibility since the government did not have the resources to launch its own rescue efforts.