The Senate approved on third and final reading the Financial Consumers Protection Act that seeks to provide heightened protection for financial consumers from increasing cybercrimes.
“It is our hope that this bill gives consumers peace of mind that their hard-earned money will not be lost or taken away without any explanation or accountability,” Poe, who chairs the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, said.
The measure will reinforce and strengthen the rights of Filipino consumers to equitable and fair treatment, disclosure and transparency of financial products and services, protection of consumer assets against ready and misuse, data privacy and protection, and the timely handling and redress of complaints.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a total of 42,456 complaints from 2020 to 2021 that amounted to an estimated P540 million.
From 2019 to 2021 alone, about P2 billion were reported to have been lost to cybercrimes. The BSP cited account takeovers or identity theft, phishing and social engineering schemes including card-not-present fraud as the top three cybercrimes in 2020.
Poe underscored the importance of building trust between consumers and financial institutions to reach the target to double the number of Filipinos with bank accounts to 70 percent by 2023.
“Let’s not waste the newfound confidence of people who shifted to online banking during the pandemic. The bigger goal is financial inclusion for every Filipino,” Poe said.
