BPI: Banks have ways to track depositors’ wealth sources

Amid the ongoing crackdown of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on bank accounts and assets of government officials, and their families involved in anomalous multi-billion-peso flood control projects, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said it is one of the companies in the banking industry with effective strategies in tracking the source of funds of depositors.

“For customers to be onboarded in any banking institution, there’s the ‘Know Your Customer’ or what we call KYC and AMLC checking. There are parameters that we look at. We look at the sources of wealth to check their profiles,” said Maria Therese Marcial, president and CEO of BPI Wealth, the capital management arm of the Ayala-led banking institution, BPI, who spoke on behalf of the country’s banking industry, during a press conference at the kick-off of the 2nd year celebration of BPI Wealth Wellness Month.

Regulations

She said that the regulations implemented by all Philippine banks continue to improve and strengthen over the years, specifically the KYC procedure.

“In fact, because of some gains made this year, we are finally out of the greylist. It’s a very disciplined and systematic process before we onboard a customer,” she stressed.

Last February, the Philippines was delisted on AMLC’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s greylist in a bid to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

Countries in the FATF greylist are placed under increased monitoring, a burdensome process for banks and other financial institutions that discourages correspondent banking relationships and international financial flows into the country.

Meanwhile, Marcial said an existing separate procedure and regulation of the AMLC called ‘politically exposed persons’ is being used by the country’s banks to check the wealth that is being entered in the country’s banks.

Higher level of due diligence

“There’s a higher level of enhanced due diligence. For BPI, as you know, we have internal procedures and have been very strict and circumspect when it comes to knowing and onboarding customers, as well as conducting due diligence,” according to the BPI official.