The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) urged banks on Thursday to be vigilant and adopt precautionary measures in the wake of reports of an unusual rise of individual accounts being opened in certain banks in recent weeks.
Under Memorandum M-2016-017, the central bank reminded banks to “exercise caution and conduct appropriate customer due diligence procedures” depending on the risk posed by the customer.
This developed after the central bank received information on “unusually high number of individual accounts” being opened in certain undisclosed banks. These are accounts, it said, used as recipients of grants and donations provided by certain organizations and foundations.
“The customer-acceptance policy of the bank should consider, among others, the background and source of funds,” the BSP said, in citing the provisions contained in the manual of regulations for banks (MORB).
The BSP said the MORB requires obtaining additional information, such as the nature and intended purpose for establishing a bank account, mandates the performance of validation procedures on any or all of the information provided by customers, as well as require senior management approval to establish a business relationship.
“In the event that the bank’s validation yields an unsatisfactory result, the bank shall deny banking relationship with the applicant,” the BSP said.
In cases where an account already exists, the bank may tag these accounts and closely monitor their movement and transactions and verify the source of funding or deposits.