House reps urge inquiry into unauthorized BDO money transfers
MANILA, Philippines — House lawmakers are calling for a legislative inquiry into reported unauthorized money transfers from accounts of Banco de Oro, incidents of which the bank acknowledged over the weekend and warned clients about.
Three lawmakers from Bayan Muna party-list on Monday filed House Resolution 2405 calling on the Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries to investigate the reported fraudulent transfer of money from the said bank. The committee is chaired by Rep. Junie Cua (Quirino).
Bayan Muna today filed House Resolution 2405 to probe the reported widespread fraudulent online bank withdrawals from clients of the Banco de Oro.#BayanMuna2022 pic.twitter.com/oWnb0mQ7iv
— BAYAN MUNA Partylist (@BayanMuna) December 13, 2021
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said Sunday that the central bank is monitoring the complaints and is coordinating with BDO to ensure that affected clients are reimbursed.
The Bayan Muna lawmakers however said that "[m]ore than the admission of the occurrence of security breach or fraud and pursuing reactive measures, the members of the banking industry, as well as the BSP, should put in place more protective measures and policies to protect the interest of the public and the integrity of the banking transactions."
"As representatives of the people, Congress should protect the welfare of the Filipino people against these fraudulent activities, especially amid the pandemic and economic crisis," they added.
The lawmakers also stressed the need for speedy reimbursement of money to affected consumers.
Reps. Carlos Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat signed the resolution.
Bank urges clients to be careful
In the past week, BDO account holders reported unauthorized transactions in their accounts where they lost up to P100,000. Affected clients have created a Facebook group called “Mark Nagoyo BDO hacked,” and have since gained more than 2,000 members.
BDO Unibank said Sunday that it had already been informed of the concerns and assured clients that it was "looking into each of the cases." It also began prompting users to update their login credentials with a pop-up notification on its mobile app.
"[N]ever share login information like username and password, and OTP. For added protection and security, clients are encouraged to regularly change the passwords of their online bank account," the bank said.
The Bankers Association of the Philippines meanwhile urged Filipinos to be more vigilant and report incidents of cybercrime to their banks and to the police. — Kristine Joy Patag with reports from Franco Luna
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