Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation
An estimated 21.8 million PESONet transactions amounted to
1.3 trillion pesos in 2021. This has grown to 26.4 million
transactions amounting to 1.9 trillion pesos in 2022.
Transactions,
investments, and other financial activities
become more convenient and accessible as more institutions
and consumers increasingly adopt digital payment methods.
However, this also makes consumers more attractive targets
for cybercrime.
In response, the government and the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (BSP) are intensifying efforts to protect consumers.
Last year, the most commonly reported types of scams were
phishing, card-not-present fraud, and identity theft. These
crimes involve stealing sensitive information or tricking
consumers into them. Scammers then use the information to
access the victim’s financial accounts or make fraudulent
transactions.
Financial institutions have systems to protect consumers from
these scams, and many scammers do not use any
sophisticated tools. However, cybercriminals can still exploit
naive individuals to get the information they need to commit
fraud.
The Top 3 Most Reported Scams in 2021
On May 6, 2022, President Rodrigo Duterte signed REPUBLIC
ACT (RA) 11765, also known as the Financial Products and
Services Consumer Protection Act. It protects financial consumers
and helps ensure the products and services offered to them are
safe and secure.
RA 11765 empowers regulators of financial institutions to perform
acts necessary
for protecting consumers. This
includes
conducting market surveillance, provision of complaints handling
mechanisms, and rule-making.
Regulators are now able to impose enforcement actions on the
organizations they supervise. This means financial institutions
such as banks can now be required to implement specific security
mechanisms.
The Financial Products and Services
Consumer Protection Act
The BSP intensified its efforts to curb cybercrime. They called
on the private sector to increase its vigilance against money
laundering and terrori