A Philippine lawmaker is pushing for amendments to the nation’s Bank Secrecy Law to curb illegal activities by improved oversight.
The proposed Senate Bill No 1047 aims to increase the supervisory power of the nation’s central bank – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) – to investigate bank accounts that could be linked to money laundering, fraud, bribery or other financial crimes.
This could allow the BSP to examine bank deposits in the case of reasonable doubt over such illegal activities, if authorized by the BSP’s Monetary Board and conducted for official purposes only.
Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Tuesday highlighted that “By amending the bank Secrecy Law, we empower our institutions to go after dirty money, hold wrongdoers accountable, and restore public trust in government”.
The legislator noted that “The proposed amendments will apply to both peso and foreign currency deposits, striking a balance between protecting individual privacy and strengthening the government’s capacity to detect and prosecute financial misconduct,” he stated, as cited by the Philippine News Agency.
In August of last year, the central bank mandated that all electronic wallets disconnect from online gambling sites, amid growing concerns over illegal online gambling operations in the nation. In a Senate committee hearing at the time, data presented indicated that there were nearly 12,000 illegal online gambling sites operating in the country, with nearly 6,400 being online casino games, 234 offshore sites and 4,815 e-sabong (online cockfighting) platforms.
The BSP has also imposed tighter regulations on online gambling payment service providers (PSPs) and implemented restrictions on fund transfers.
