BPI boasts of strict control vs money laundering ploys

Bank of the Philippine Islands ( BPI) said the 184- year old bank has the necessary systems in place to prevent it from being used as a conduit to launder dirty money in the country.

BPI president and chief executive officer Cezar Consing said during the bank’s annual stockholders’ meeting ( ASM) the controls being implemented by the Ayala- led bank are fairly strict.

“BPI is not involved in the $ 81 million money laundering case. I think and hope that it is unlikely that it could happen to BPI,” Consing said.

The country’s financial system was dragged into the money laundering scandal after the funds stolen by hackers from the account of Bangladesh Bank at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York entered the Philippines via the Jupiter branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. ( RCBC).

Consing said BPI executes almost 20,000 remittance transactions every week and almost 99.9 percent involves significant size for well known corporate clients.

“There is a very small number of remittances of significant size that are addressed to individuals that are checked at several levels. So I believe our controls in this matter are fairly strict,” he said.

Consing explained BPI ha s a strong and experienced management team handling branches all over the country.

“Ultimately as CEO of the bank, I am in charge of operations. But we have a very deep and very experienced branch operations management bench that has controls at several layers,” he added.

The bank president pointed out the scandal has affected Filipinos working and living abroad who are trying to send money to their loved ones in the Philippines.

“It is very possible that remittance charges will actually go up and that is one of the sad effects of this money laundering incident. What we are seeing happening now is foreign banks are beginning to be more choosy with which local banks to deal with,” Consing said.

He said more foreign banks con- tinue to offer partnership with BPI on remittances.

“Fortunately, I can say that this incident has not affected negatively our dealings with foreign banks. More foreign banks want to deal with us almost exclusively,” he said.

BPI is spending at least P600 million a year to make sure that its systems are not compromised.

BPI executive vice president Simon Paterno said the bank is also amenable to amendments to RA 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Law of 1955, as well as RA 10365 or the Anti Money Laundering Act ( AMLA) of 2013.

“I think that it is time that we align ourselves with global best practices,” Paterno said.

Meanwhile, Anti- Money Laundering Council executive director Julia Bacay- Abad said the body is coordinating with the Office of the Solicitor General for the filing of a petition of civil forfeiture case on the amount stolen from the Bangladesh Bank that has so far been recovered.

Abad said the petition would be filed within the week and is expected not to take long to resolve.

“If it is just one bank account, it will not take long. If there are other known claimants then we will also serve notices. In this case we will have to implead the one who returned the money because he has an interest in the money and then the court will set the case for hearing,” she added.

After all the parties have been heard and all pieces of evidence has been filed, she explained the court has 30 days to decide on the case.

Casino junket operator Kim Wong has returned the funds abandoned by casino junket agent Gao Shuhua amounting to $ 4.63 million and P38.28 million for safe- keeping.

The Bangladesh Bank has been closely watching developments during the hearings conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and wants the money to be turned over to the Bangladesh government immediately.

Likewise, Abad added AMLC would now require banks to file suspicious transaction reports within five days as stated in the law instead of the current practice of 10 days.