THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has ordered non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) with trust authority to pay annual supervision fees to defray the costs of maintaining a dedicated supervision department which oversees their operations.
NBFIs include pawnshops, insurance firms, investment houses, credit card companies, and microfinance institutions, which offer financial services (lending, investing, risk pooling) without accepting traditional deposits. Also part of NBFIs are government agencies like SSS, GSIS, and Pag-IBIG, as well as private entities like GCash.
BSP Circular No. 1228 requires NBFIs with trust authority to pay an annual supervision fee equivalent to one-twentieth (1/28) of 1 percent of its average assessable assets from the previous year.
Assessable assets are the total assets managed by an NBFI’s trust department, excluding securities under custodianship. The assets are calculated by taking the sum of the month-end balances and dividing it by the number of months the NBFI was in operation during the assessment period.
The BSP will send a billing notice to the NBFI detailing the computation of its annual supervision fee for the period covered and the mode of payment, among others.
In case of errors, the NBFI should submit exceptions and supporting documents at least 10 banking days before the payment deadline.
NBFIs do not need to withhold tax on their annual supervision fee payments, since the BSP’s income is exempt from national internal revenue taxes.
The supervision fee must be paid on or before May 31 of every year. The collection of fees starts this year.
Failure to pay the fees on time may result in administrative sanctions, the BSP said, noting that its monetary board may impose penalties, suspend or remove directors or officers, or even revoke the NBFI’s authority to engage in the trust business.
In cases involving corporations, the Solicitor General may also initiate proceedings to dissolve the the firm, the BSP said.