Bangko Sentral, AMLC reviewing bank secrecy law

The money laundering scandal involving Bangladesh Bank funds has prompted Philippine monetary authorities to review the 1995 Law on Secrecy of Bank Deposits.

The goal is to make bank transaction records accessible when needed.

“’Yung sa bank secrecy, we’re going to work together with our AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council) to provide suggestions on this," Pia Bernadette Roman Tayag, head of the Inclusive Finance Advocacy Staff of the BSP, told GMA News Online on the sidelines of the Financial Inclusion Summit 2016 Thursday.

"And possibly, there are many approaches:  total lifting or partial lifting with certain conditions, so we are yet to submit pa,” Tayag said.

Communications Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III last month said the changes would help expose and investigate the transactions regarding the dirty money laundered from the account of the Bangladesh Bank with the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

“We’re reviewing, learning from what is happening... We’re continuously working with the AMLC,” Tayag noted.

Bank deposits are protected by Republic Act No. 1405 or the Law on Secrecy of Bank Deposits. The law mandates that all deposits are considered “absolutely confidential” except upon written permission of the depositor through a waiver.

Other cases in which the bank secrecy law is lifted include impeachment proceedings. A court may also order that the law be waived in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty involving public officials, and when the money deposited in a particular account is the subject of litigation.

“We’re protected by law 'di ba, that the info can’t be shared, but if the owner of the account issues a waiver then that info can be shared,” Tayag said.

With the waiver, a "bank depositor can waive his right to privacy with respect to his bank deposit so the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) or other regulators and law enforcement agencies can look into it," according to a ranking central bank official who asked not to be named. – VDS, GMA News