BSP vows GCash probe complete next month

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) aims to conclude its investigation on unauthorized fund transfers among GCash users next month or in 15 more days.

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan on Wednesday said he requested an additional investigation period to ensure all entities responsible for protecting the public from suspicious financial transactions are always well-equipped against them or duly penalized when the entities fail to do so.

“We want to be thorough with this because we want to assure the public that it’s safe and that we’re keeping it that way,” he told the media during a break from the talks at the third BSP and International Monetary Fund’s Systemic Risk Dialogue in Mactan, Cebu.

In its official statement, GCash said the suspicious fund transfers were caused by “errors in an ongoing system reconciliation process” and not by fraudulent activities.

The e-wallet firm said losses to the affected GCash users were returned in full within 24 hours after users reported the questionable transfers on 9 November.

Diminishing deposits

Some users said their account balances were repetitively reduced by P1,000 to P2,000 and transferred to account numbers they did not recognize.

“We will dispense efforts in getting to the root cause of this to instill that trust. We have to tell the public what happened, what we’re going to do about it, and how they can protect themselves,” Tangonan said.

As the BSP goes through the GCash investigation, Tangonan said the central bank can gain insights for creating necessary policies and efficient ways to implement them amid the rapid technological developments worldwide.

“Usually when you get to the bottom of things, that will point you to policy gaps. That’s why we want to know the root cause of the Gcash problem so we can review our policies. Sometimes we have the policy but we need to boost the enforcement,” he said.

Tangonan assured the public that the BSP does not tolerate negligence or wrongdoings by any financial firm that has been proven guilty through fair processes. “If there are infractions, there will be a course of action.”

While the investigation results have yet to be released, Tangonan said fraudulent fund transfers in the country have been minimal when compared to all transactions.

In 2023, he said proven fraudulent fund transfers accounted for only 0.0002 percent of all suspected transactions nationwide.