THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have signed an information-sharing agreement to fast-track the investigation and prosecution of financial account scams.
“As financial services become increasingly digital, and transactions occur with an unprecedented speed, the institutions tasked with safeguarding the public must likewise be capable of responding with speed, precision and close coordination,” BSP General Counsel Roberto Figueroa said during the signing on Wednesday.
He said the agreement would help strengthen enforcement of the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (Afasa) amid the continued rise of online fraud.
“Afasa establishes a legal framework that enables regulators, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and covert institutions to work together while respecting the rule of law, due process, and the safeguards that govern the handling of information,” Figueroa said.
“So this information-sharing agreement, or ISA, gives practical effect to that legislative framework,” he added.
The agreement establishes procedures for the DOJ to request and receive financial account information from the BSP to support investigations into financial account scams and related offenses covered under Afasa.
Figueroa said the arrangement was expected to speed up the tracing and identification of individuals behind suspicious financial transactions, enabling authorities to take quicker action and prevent additional losses for victims.
“Stronger institutional collaboration enhances our collective ability to identify organized actors who exploit the financial system, disrupt their operations, and hold them accountable under the law,” he said.
Earlier this year, the BSP entered into similar information-sharing agreements with the National Bureau of Investigation, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center and the Securities and Exchange Commission, expanding the network of agencies involved in combating financial fraud.
With the DOJ now joining the information-sharing framework, the BSP said coordination among institutions responsible for investigating, prosecuting and preventing financial account scams had been strengthened.
