BSP to strengthen consumer protection

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is further strengthening consumer protection measures as complaints breached the 30,000 level from January to September last year.

BSP managing director Charina De Vera-Yap said the number of complaints received by the central bank during the nine-month period in 2023 reached 31,000, exceeding the number recorded in 2022.

“For 2023 we are still cleaning up the data. But through September, we have around 30,000 to 31,000 complaints,” De Vera-Yap said.

She pointed out that majority of the complaints received, from financial consumers are regarding e-money, but mostly on account management.

“They cannot access, they forget their passwords and how to access their accounts. So those are the types of complaints against e-money,” she said.

In 2022, the number of complaints lodged with the regulator through various channels of the BSP’s consumer assistance mechanism (CAM) went up by 15 percent to 22,142 from 19,191 in 2021.

In 2020 and 2021, the regulator received 42,456 financial complaints. Of the total number, the use of internet and mobile banking accounted for 45.2 percent.

In 2020 alone, hacking and other malware attacks surged by 2,324 percent, while phishing and other social engineering schemes jumped by 302 percent since 2019.

Likewise, account takeover or identity theft increased by 25 percent, while card not present fraud declined by 26.8 percent.

During the period, the BSP said the top three cybercrimes included account takeover or identity theft, phishing and other social engineering schemes and card not present fraud.

In 2022, 31 percent involving 5,211 incidents involved card not present fraud with losses amounting to P467 million followed by phishing and other variations with 29 percent or 6,295 incidents covering P623 million, as well as account takeover or identity theft with 18 percent or 3,104 incidents amounting to P409 million

BSP senior assistant governor and general counsel Elmore Capule said the regulator is pursuing additional legislative reforms to further protect financial consumers in the Philippines.

Capule said the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) has included the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA) and the proposed amendments to the Bank Secrecy Law in its 20 priority bills.

Capule cited the importance of the passage of Republic Act 11765 or the Financial Consumer Protection Act that paved the way for the issuance of BSP Circulars 1160 and 1169 to further protect financial consumers.

De Vera-Yap said aggrieved financial consumers could seek the help of the BSP through the financial consumer protection assistance mechanism and the consumer assistance mechanism.

If these mechanisms fail to resolve their complaints, she said the next step is mediation and adjudication.

Capule said the BSP Consumer Complaints Resolution Office has the mandate to conduct both mediation and adjudication under the supervision of the Office of the General Counsel and Legal Services, which he heads.