December 19th, 2021
House Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) slammed the use of quitclaims by banks to absolve themselves of legal responsibility in systemic failures in online banking services, in response to reports that certain banks have been making customers sign waivers when returning funds lost to technical issues with mobile banking applications.
“This is not acceptable. I request the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to look into whether we can take legal or administrative action against banks forcing clients to sign quitclaims in exchange for their own money,” Salceda said.
Salceda cited that under the Consumer Financial Protection Act, which Salceda principally sponsored, and which is now pending in the Senate after being approved by the House, there is a prohibition against waivers of claims.
“If it’s the bank’s fault, and it appears that there may have indeed been a breach of security systems, then the bank should not be able to squeeze itself out of its responsibility,” Salceda said.
Salceda adds that even if the waivers are signed by individual clients, there should still be an investigation into whether certain banks involved in the bank account hacking issue violated the rules and regulations of the BSP.
“It appears to me the banks may have fallen short of Circular No. 982, s. 2017 of the BSP on enhanced cybersecurity measures. It is also possible that banks will be subject to the “high penalty level” sanctions under Section 1102 of the Manual of Regulations for Banks,” Salceda added.
Under the MORB, Salceda said, the incident qualifies as a “Reportable Major Cyber-related Incidents.”
“I am confident that the BSP is now investigating the incident’s roots and will be able to make policy recommendations, as they have stated in a recent briefing with the Palace,” Salceda said.
“I also strongly urge the BSP to check the annual IT profiles and periodic reports to check whether the banks were able to accurately reflect the strength of their cybersecurity profiles. There are penalties for that as well,” Salceda added.
Earlier this week, Salceda also filed resolutions urging the House to look into the security systems of banks, and the ability of law enforcement to fight financial cybercrimes. (end)