The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has announced its permanent adoption of select foreign exchange (FX) relief measures, providing a smoother FX sales and transaction process for banks.
BSP Circular No. 1171, signed on March 29 and approved by a Monetary Board resolution on March 23, modifies FX regulations by permanently relaxing documentary requirements and extending the waiver of monetary penalties until end-June 2023 for delays incurred in report submissions.
The BSP will unwind the remaining temporary measures implemented in response to Covid-19 three years ago, although it has yet to specify which relief measures will be removed.
According to the BSP, these amendments align with its objective to streamline procedures and documentary requirements for FX transactions.
Notarization requirements for certain supporting documents for trade and non-trade current account transactions and foreign investments, and the processing fee in relation to non-compliance with prescriptive periods for submission to the BSP International Operations Department (IOD) of applications/requests for various FX transactions are among the six FX relief measures that will be permanently adopted.
Other relief measures that have become permanent include the issuance of BSP-IOD documents in electronic form, electronic submission of reports to BSP-IOD, and the electronic submission of BSP-IOD application forms without the required electronic/digital signatures, provided that same will be accompanied by the required attestation from the submitting party.
The BSP-IOD documents issued in electronic form starting March 27, 2020, such as BSP letter-approval and provisional Bangko Sentral registration documents (BSRDs), will remain valid even after the period covered by Circular No. 1080, and the BSP will no longer issue original hardcopies to replace said BSP documents.
