There should be more tough laws against cybercriminals

Fight against cybercrime

As can be seen, cybersecurity requirements are increasing along with the growing demand for fintech services. The expansion of trade, capital flows and networking in Southeast Asia shows that the region’s cyber threat will become more complex in the future, driving the need for solutions to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. .

Recently, President of BDO Unibank (the Philippines’ largest property lender), Nestor Tan said in an annual meeting that businesses must pay attention and follow the upcoming presidential polls. takes place on 9/5. According to him, the elections will obviously bring different expectations and policies.

Before the election, Tan said the BDO was ready to work with the new administration in combating and “preventing” cybercrime in the financial industry. Financial service providers outside of central bank regulation have increased, he said, and “for the health of the industry and the public, the government should look at how these entities are regulated.” and they must be regulated “extremely rigorously” like existing traditional financial banks, he also said that laws and regulations must be tough enough to prevent cybercrime in the banking and finance industry.

Finally, Tan called on the next administration to also review the competitiveness of the Philippine banking industry relative to its peers in Southeast Asia. “One of the things we might want to look at is — can we compete in the region?” Tan said on April 22.

It is known that BDO, owned by the family of the late billionaire Henry Sy, in December 2021 lost money in an online scam in which money was transferred to an account at another Philippine lending company. . Tan at the April 22 meeting said they will maintain digital innovation and strengthen their business strategies.

BDO Unibank Inc, the country’s largest lender, is poised to surpass pre-pandemic earnings in 2022 despite risks from high inflation, geopolitical tensions and upcoming elections. “We remain optimistic that the worst of the pandemic is behind us,” BDO chairman Nestor Tan told shareholders during the company’s annual meeting.

BDO expects profits to grow between 5% and 10% this year as pandemic restrictions ease and even if inflation remains a concern. Tan said the company’s loan portfolio will grow 8% to 12%. Net income for the first quarter of the year increased 13% to 11.7 billion pesos ($223.5 million). Fee income will also be higher while bad debts are normalized. But Tan also warned that risks remain and the near-term outlook is “mixed” due to higher commodity prices and further disruption from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Tan said businesses are also paying attention with presidential polls coming up on May 9. However, he reiterated that in 2022, and because there is still a pandemic, a lot of things are uncertain. The May 9 national election and its results, as well as the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, were also factors that led to a year of turmoil.

Philippine banks want more laws as cybercrime leaves more and more losses

At the beginning of February 2022, the Philippines’ largest group of bankers increased cooperation with the government and sought new laws against cybercrime, as the damage caused by these illegal activities amounted to 1 billion VND. pesos ($19.6 million) during the pandemic.

Accordingly, the Bankers Association of the Philippines signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice to strengthen information sharing and cooperation against cybercrime. The Bankers Association of the Philippines will also organize more cyber security information campaigns.

The amount of money lost to cybercriminals continues to rise, and banks don’t have to bear all the losses, because of some incidents, said Ramon Jocson, vice chair of the cybersecurity committee of the Bankers’ Association of the Philippines. incidents involving customers who provided personally identifiable information or leaked one-time passwords.

The Bankers Association of the Philippines is also slowly pushing to update its decades-old cybercrime law, enacted when most crimes involve stolen teller machine cards, as opposed to The most common form of fraud today, says Jocson.

“As banking and financial transactions have become more convenient and accessible to millions of Filipinos, it has led to an increase in the number of Filipinos,” said Wick Veloso, President of the Bankers Association of the Philippines. increasing the complexity of how cybercriminals perform attacks. For us in the banking industry, this means we always have to be one step ahead.”

Moreover, experts have also urged Philippines rethink its cybersecurity programs in light of the increasing frequency of ransomware attacks and other online crimes. According to a consumer and market data provider, ransomware attacks increased 625% to 304 million incidents worldwide in 2020, the highest level in the previous four years.