Senate to investigate unauthorized withdrawals from BDO, BPI accounts

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Friday decided to schedule a legislative probe into the glitches that affected ATM accounts with BDO Unibank Inc. and Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).

The senator was prompted by the latest report of possible automated teller machine (ATM) fraud after BDO issued a statement earlier on Friday on potentially compromised ATMs.

According to BDO, it has obtained reports of potentially compromised ATMs from customers. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is now monitoring the situation.

“Given the BDO reported incidents, I am constrained to call for a hearing on June 21 on these matters in order to appraise the public of what is going on and to placate speculations on this issue that may negatively impinge upon or affect the banking sector as a whole,” Escudero said in a text message.

Escudero chairs the Senate Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies.

Representatives from BDO and BPI, as well as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), will be invited to the inquiry.

“We will just get the facts to inform the public about the cause with a view to preventing further speculations on the matter which may turn out to be baseless after all,” he said.

The potentially compromised ATMs now hounding BDO comes on the heels of a glitch that plagued BPI last week.

Earlier, Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III filed Senate Resolution No. 403 seeking an investigation into the BPI glitch.

“Although this inquiry has been prompted by the experience of only one bank, there is a need to find out if other banks and our entire banking system are vulnerable to the same phenomenon as what struck BPI this early June 2017,” Pimentel said.

Pimentel said the reports of BDO ATMs being compromised are already “alarming” and should be “sufficient impulse and justification for us to hear and investigate this matter."

Pimentel’s resolution has yet to be formally referred to Escudero’s committee as the Congress is still on break. — VDS, GMA News