Banks urged to ensure clients register their SIM

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has directed banks and financial institutions to ensure that their clients register their SIM cards before the deadline to ensure continued financial services.

BSP Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said the regulator urges BSP-supervised financial institutions to remind their clients of the mandated SIM card registration requirement under Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.

“BSFIs are advised to take proactive measures to ensure that their client are aware and comply with the registration requirement on or before said deadline in order for their access to payments and financial services to proceed smoothly,” Tangonan said.

The law signed by President Marcos in October last year to help curb scams and other online crimes has given Filipinos until April 26 this year to register their SIM cards. Failure to do so will lead to the deactivation of SIM cards.

Under the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) issued by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the deadline may be extended for a period not exceeding 120 days.

“The deactivation may cause unnecessary interruptions in the access and use by a client of a BSFI’s electronic payments and financial services, such as hindering the generation of one-time password for access and transaction authorization, and the issuance of advisories and transaction alerts,” Tangonan warned.

Under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap, the BSP aims to convert 50 percent of total retail transactions to electronic channels and increase the number of Filipino adults with bank accounts to 70 percent by 2023.

With the COVID-19 pandemic serving as catalyst, the share of digital payments to total transactions increased to 30.3 percent in 2021 from 20.1 percent in 2020, while the number of banked Filipino adults almost doubled to 56 percent in 2021 from 29 percent in 2019.