By IRMA ISIP and MYLA IGLESIAS
Regulators have joined the investigation of the unauthorized transactions involving e-wallet provider GCash while the financial technology industry called on players to be more transparent and open in their operations.
This developed as telecommunication companies vowed to strengthen their coordination with the National Privacy Commission (NPC) in enhancing the quality of services to stakeholders while ensuring the protection of personal data.
In a statement late Wednesday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it has directed G-Xchange Inc. (GXI), operator of GCash to submit the required regulatory report and to swiftly resolve the deduction of balance in GCash accounts experienced by its customers.
In response, BSP said GXI has expressed its commitment to make the necessary adjustments in the affected accounts.
“The BSP is also actively engaging with the affected BSP Supervised Financial Institutions to mitigate the impact of the GXI incident,” it said in the statement.
The NPC called GXI officials for a “classificatory meeting” today.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communication Technology, is also set to meet officials of GCash today.
Although the funds have been adjusted to GCash account holders affected by the unauthorized transactions, investigation continues, according to Alexander Ramos, undersecretary of CICC, in an interview with ABS-CBN on Wednesday.
Ramos said this is complex crime involving issues affecting other agencies.
At today’s meeting, GCash is expected to present data on how many users were affected and the procedure they have undertaken to address the matter.
“We need to get to the bottom of it,” Ramos said.
Lito Villanueva, president of Fintech Alliance of the Philippines, said in the same interview regulators should check the compliance of fintech companies on cyber resilience, cyber security and consumer protection.
Moving forward, Villanueva sees fintech companies putting in place stricter screening and layers of authentication measures for security.
Meanwhile, NPC and the three telcos Dito Telecommunity Corp., Globe Telecom Inc. and Smart Communications Inc. on May 10 signed a memorandum of understanding where they agreed to form
a joint task force to foster coordination, communication, and implementation of the parties’ respective obligations regarding data privacy and protection, with NPC serving as the Secretariat.
NPC said the collaboration is a response to the urgent need to protect the public’s data privacy and security, especially against the prevalence of fraudulent schemes such as targeted smishing messages.
