BSP urges banks, financial institutions to look into work from home options

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has urged local banks and other financial institutions to look into possible remote work arrangements to ensure the health and safety of employees and customers amid the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

In a memorandum dated March 11, the BSP called on all supervised financial institutions (BSFIs) and operators of payment systems (OPS) to look into appropriate response plans and mechanisms to combat the spread of COVID-19.

"Following the response plans, trigger events such as the current COVID-19 epidemic should allow work arrangements or remote access capabilities as may be deemed practicable and/or necessary by the above-captioned institutions," the memorandum read.

"Clear communication protocols covering all relevant internal and external stakeholders should also be implemented," it added.

The Philippines has so far recorded 49 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 16 of which were reported Wednesday.

"More importantly, BSFIs and OPS should ensure that their employees are properly guided on limiting or reducing the risk of being affected by the COVID-19 epidemic through timely and continuous cascades of relevant information," said the BSP.

For its part, the central bank has been temporarily closed to make way for disinfection after its top official, Governor Benjamin Diokno, said he has opted to go on self-quarantine.

"I'll go on self-quarantine because I was in the NLEx inspection ceremony with Secretaries Dominguez and Tugade last Thursday and was in a wake with Secretary Dominguez last Saturday," he said in a mobile message.

He was referring to the inspection of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) Harbor Link C3-R10 section last week, which was also attended by President Rodrigo Duterte. —KBK, GMA News