Bill aiming to protect consumers vs. scams, fraud reaches Senate plenary

A bill seeking to protect financial consumers against fraudsters, hackers, and scammers has reached the Senate plenary.

Senate banks, financial institution, and currencies chairperson Grace Poe on Tuesday sponsored the Senate bill 2488 or the proposed Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act (FCPA) on the floor.

“The rapid expansion of our online financial systems—no doubt accelerated by the pandemic—also became a fertile ground for many fraudsters, hackers, and unscrupulous individuals to scam people out of their money,” Poe said in her sponsorship speech.

Citing the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data in 2020, Poe said that the hacking and other malware attacks increased by 2,323% compared to the data in 2019.

Meanwhile, phishing and other social engineering schemes increased by 301% within the same period.

Poe likewise noted an industry group report which indicated that credit fraud in the Philippines rose by 21% since the start of the pandemic, most of which were carried out through various digital payment platforms.

According to Poe, FCPA lays as its foundation and overarching guide the rights of the financial consumers.

The measure will cover a wide range of financial products and services offered by banks, insurance companies, HMOs, investment advisers, relevant cooperatives, and other corporations and financial institutions.

These entities will be monitored by their respective financial regulators such as the BSP, Securities and Exchange Commission, the Insurance Commission or the Cooperative Development Authority. 

SB 2488 will also capacitate financial regulators to resolve the challenges faced by the financial consumers in a timely manner through its power to monitor markets and require submission of necessary reports and data.

They will also be given the authority to restrict the collection of excessive or unreasonable fees by service providers; the power to suspend the operation of any supervised financial service provider; and the power to issue a cease-and-desist order under certain circumstances.

Poe said the financial service providers will be given a list of duties to their clients such as the determination of suitable financial products, reasonable pricing, provision of a cooling-off period to give consumers enough time to reflect before purchase; and adoption of disclosure principles, including the use of clear and concise language to ensure that the consumer understands the transaction.

The lawmaker assured that data privacy is observed in this proposed law as the financial service providers will be asked to enforce the Data Privacy Act and to ensure that they have a cybersecurity mechanism that would prevent possible attacks.

“Aside from the required consumer protection assistance mechanism on the part of both the financial service provider and financial regulator, the financial regulators are now also equipped with adjudicatory powers for reimbursement of money within a certain threshold,” she said.

“This would declog court dockets and give immediate relief to the ordinary consumers who simply cannot afford to wait for months to get their money back,” she added.

Further, Poe said investment fraud is defined and penalized under the bill. This will be on top of the other penalties provided by the existing laws.

“These scams bring only devastation and hardships to their victims, and as such, should be deterred at all costs,” she said.

SB 2488 will also provide appropriate criminal and administrative penalties to ensure “proper compliance with its mandates.”

She said financial regulators may file an independent civil action on behalf of the affected financial consumers for the protection of their rights as well as for public interest.

“Through these interventions, we hope to instill trust and confidence in our financial system. As this Congress nears the end, let us be remembered as not only the Congress that faced the colossal challenges of the pandemic, but also the Congress that found ways to advance the welfare of the financial consumers,” she said. — BM, GMA News