BDO: Liability clause unchanged
Sy-led bank refutes allegations after fraud incident
BDO Unibank, Inc. refuted claims that alleged the bank has revised its terms and conditions in relation to losses from unauthorized online transaction following the fraud incident earlier this month.
“There was no added clause due to the recent incident. BDO made exceptions and shouldered the losses not caused by the clients to maintain good customer relationship even if the bank is not legally liable,” the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
Some netizens have posted photos of what they alleged as “new and improved” terms and conditions following the incident where some BDO clients saw unauthorized fund transfers to UnionBank of the Philippines, Inc. ac-counts.
Based on the screenshot, BDO’s liability clause says the bank is not liable for losses from improper transactions “with or without” the participation of the account owner.
“Liability clause is a regular compliance in the banking industry. This has been part of the normal compliance for a long time,” BDO said.
Earlier, the bank acknowledged the “sophisticated fraud technique” that hit several clients.
Last week, BDO said it was already processing the reimbursement claims of about 700 clients affected by the incident.
For its part, UnionBank said it had frozen nearly P5 million in the accounts that received unauthorized fund transfers from BDO.
Last week, UnionBank Chief Technology and Operations Officer Henry Rhoel R. Aguda said the bank had identified about six individuals as persons of interest in the case.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has created a task force that will focus on investigating the fraud incident involving BDO and UnionBank. BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said the task force was ordered to submit recommendations within 30 days.
The central bank is still checking whether there were gaps in the concerned banks’ security measures to gauge whether there is a need to impose sanctions or penalties, said Melchor T. Plabasan, technology risk and innovation supervision director at the BSP.
BDO is the country’s largest bank in terms of assets at P3.323 trillion as of June.
BDO TEAMS UP WITH JAPAN’S RESONA BANK
In a separate statement, BDO said it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Resona Bank Group (RBG) that would allow the local lender to finance RBG’s clients in the Philippines.
“For BDO, the partnership with Resona can potentially increase its support to Japanese companies doing business in the country, particularly those located in various industrial zones,” the bank said.
Resona is Japan’s fourth-largest universal bank. BDO’s alliance deal with RBG will include the Japanese lender’s units Resona Bank, Saitama Resona Bank, Kansai Mirai Bank, and Minato Bank.
The Sy-led lender’s third-quarter net income decreased by 10.6% year on year to P11.033 billion due to increased expenses and as its net interest income slipped amid lower rates. This brought its net profit as of end-September to P32.484 billion, increasing by 95.7% from the P16.598 billion in the same period last year.
On Tuesday, its shares closed at P123.60 apiece, down by P3.40 or 2.68% from its previous finish. — Luz Wendy T. Noble
