The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has partnered with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to track down scammers and speed up investigations into fraudulent financial activities across the country.
Under an information-sharing agreement signed on July 22 at the BSP headquarters in Manila, the DOJ will gain access to financial account data maintained by the central bank’s Consumer Account Protection Office. The arrangement operates under safeguards mandated by the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act and BSP Circular No. 1214.
The inter-agency pact aims to bolster law enforcement capabilities to trace illicit money flows, uncover the operators behind organized scam networks, and mitigate financial losses for the public.
BSP General Counsel Roberto Figueroa, representing BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr., signed the memorandum with DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty.
“Stronger institutional collaboration enhances our collective ability to identify organized actors who exploit the financial system, disrupt their operations, and hold them accountable under the law,” Figueroa said.
The agreement strictly restricts the application of shared financial data to authorized investigative purposes and enforces legal data protection protocols.
BSP Deputy Governor Elmore Capule emphasized that the partnership “sends a very strong message that the government is fighting as one to protect the Filipino public.”
The DOJ deal follows similar information-sharing agreements executed by the central bank in February with the National Bureau of Investigation, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, and the Securities and Exchange Commission
