BSP will release stronger regulations on bank fraud management.
BSP — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will release stronger regulations on bank fraud management in order to control and deter future breaches.
With recent cybersecurity issues on local banks in the Philippines, BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said that the central bank will be releasing stronger regulations on bank fraud management soon in order to deter and control future breaches.
Diokno said in a virtual press briefing last Friday that the central bank was in the final stages of issuing a circular mandating the temporary holding of funds and adoption of robust fraud management systems as part of “Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)” by BSP supervised financial institutions (BSFIs).
“The BSP is in the final stages of issuing a circular mandating the adoption of robust fraud management systems and temporary holding of funds as part of EDD by BSFIs,” Diokno said.
The new circular was part of a comprehensive cybersecurity guidelines that the central bank was preparing.
However, the central bank was still in the initial stages of implementing what Diokno referred to as a “holistic Governance, Risk, and Compliance solution” on cybersecurity which was aimed at strengthening the central bank’s own cybersecurity posture as well as the central bank’s cybersecurity supervision and oversight capabilities.
According to Diokno, the upcoming cybersecurity-related rules will counter those evolving threats. Diokno also called those guidelines “major policy initiatives” in order to further build up the industry’s cyber defenses and overall resilience.
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Aside from the rules on bank fraud management, Diokno said that the central bank has also issued an industry playbook on ransomware in order to guide banks on best practices and recommended controls in order to effectively manage ransomware attacks.
Diokno added that they’re also developing the FSCRP (Financial Services Cyber Resilience Plan) to serve as the “primary and cohesive framework” in order to promote cooperation and trust, intelligence sharing, and adoption of cybersecurity best practices and standards among BSP supervised financial institutions.
“As digital transformation and cyberthreats simultaneously evolve, we are working closely with BSFIs and stakeholders on pioneering and cohesive solutions to promote innovation while ensuring the safety and resilience of the financial system,” Diokno said.
According to BSP, the central bank was crafting the Financial Services Cyber Resilience Plan in line with its role as the sector lead for the banking sector’s “Computer Emergency Response Team”.
In the meantime, the central bank continued to actively participate in the BAPCID (Bankers Association of the Philippines – Cybersecurity Incident Database) which was an industry-wide cyber threat and best practices sharing platform.
The central bank said that it was also “aggressively coordinating with law enforcement agencies” to arrest and prosecute scammers, and with relevant government and private sector players to address emerging cyber-related fraud and threats.
Manila Bulletin reported that the central bank has created a task force last December 13 to investigate the hacking crisis that involved BDO Unibank Inc. and Union Bank of the Philippines.
The central bank said that there could be several banks and non-banks that were involved in the BDO hacking crisis based on initial monitoring and surveillance.
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