Amending the Bank Secrecy Act as a key to financial integrity

The integrity of a financial system is a key factor in its financial stability.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno recently reiterated the need to amend Republic Act (RA) 1405, or the “Bank Secrecy Act.” This comes in the wake of the controversy involving German company Wirecard AG and its missing $2.1-billion funds. An “elaborate” search was conduct to determine whether the missing money entered the Philippine financial system through two of our major banks, BDO Unibank Inc. and Bank of the Philippine Islands.