EDITORIAL - No absolute bank secrecy

The spirited effort to stop the testimony yesterday of the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council during the impeachment trial highlights the need to ease bank secrecy laws.

After a prolonged back-and-forth between the prosecution and the defense, with interjections from the senator-judges, presiding officer Francis Escudero allowed AMLC executive director Ronel Buenaventura to proceed with his testimony.

The defense cited the absolute confidentiality in particular of foreign currency deposits. As even the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has pointed out though, there are exceptions to this “absolute” confidentiality, for both local accounts and foreign currency deposits.

Under the Foreign Currency Deposit Act, the AMLC may look into foreign currency deposits or investments related to money laundering offenses and other unlawful activities. The Presidential Commission on Good Government is also authorized to do this in the pursuit of ill-gotten wealth.

There are other exceptions to the secrecy of foreign currency deposits. For such accounts as well as local bank deposits and investments, the secrecy can be waived through the voluntary consent of the depositor. Impeachment cases and probes into bribery, plunder and unexplained wealth also allow the lifting of secrecy laws on local accounts.

Still, Philippine bank secrecy laws remain restrictive, as even the BSP has pointed out. While certain restrictions have been relaxed through legislative amendments, lawmakers have resisted proposals to substantially ease the secrecy laws.

This is believed to have allowed plunderers in this country to launder their loot into foreign currency and park the dirty money in the relative safety of foreign currency accounts.

If lawmakers stand firm on their resistance to easing bank secrecy laws, the AMLC can seek the help of the global dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force in putting pressure for amending restrictive laws.

In 2016, the Philippines had been tagged as a dirty money black hole after $81 million hacked from the Bangladesh Bank’s account in the New York Federal Reserve was funneled through the Philippines’ casinos and banking system. That scandal led to certain reforms particularly in casino junkets, but more changes are needed.

The ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is showing the difficulty of presenting bank deposits in a case of unexplained wealth. Whatever the outcome of the trial, it should lead to significant reforms in bank secrecy laws.