BSP probes into dubious withdrawals from BDO

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is now looking into reports of supposedly unauthorized withdrawals from certain savings accounts of BDO Unibank Inc.

“BDO already forwarded the matter to BSP. We’re already looking into the matter,” Chuchi Fonacier, BSP Deputy Governor for Supervision and Examination Sector, told GMA News Online on Wednesday.

Unauthorized withdrawals from their BDO accounts have been posted by netizens on their social media accounts.

One of those who reported unauthorized transactions is Michicko Marzo, a 35-year old teacher in Indonesia.

In an online message, Marzo said six transactions were made using her BDO account on Dec. 27, 2017, where her account was charged P19,813.42.

According to Marzo, it would be impossible for her to do the transactions as these were made in the United States.

"Nasa Indonesia ako at sa US nagamit ang account, which is impossible kasi nasa akin po ang ATM card ko, at lalong wala ako dun kasi po nandito ako sa Indonesia," she said.

Marzo said she has already reported the matter to BDO.

"Nakausap ko po sila at sinabi naman po sa akin na kung mapatunayan na unauthorized 'yung transaction, ibabalik nila pera ko," she said.

She noted, however, that the bank has yet to return the money she lost over the reported unauthorized withdrawals.

"Kailangan ko pa naman 'yung pera sa pagpapagamot ko," she said.

The BSP has yet to obtain sufficient information on the matter, but the regulator is now coordinating with BDO to get further details of what actually happened.

“We’re also asking for more details,” she said.

The bank’s own investigation into the matter is also focused on detecting and stopping fraudulent activities.

“We are currently running a thorough investigation process that involves tracing individual transactions, checking any irregularities and identifying signals of fraud from millions of valid transactions every day,” the bank said.