JENNIFER L. DACANAY, a 48-year-old housewife wished to upgrade her credit card status. Unfortunately, she faced credit card fraud and lost some money in the process.

Just last December, Mrs. Dacanay received a phone call from someone posing as a bank officer and promised her with a “lifetime of free annual membership fee, an upgrade to the next tier (from Platinum to Titanium) and a P1,000 [gift certificate] to boot.” In the hopes of obtaining the upgrade, she agreed and met up with a said representative of the bank.

“I was out when he came to deliver the letter and [gift certificate] and so he asked my whereabouts and met me there. He gave me the letter, the [gift certificate] and also [took] my card which he ‘cut’ in front of me,” Mrs. Dacanay said in an e-mail interview to BusinessWorld.

Later on, Mrs. Dacanay received a phone call from the bogus representative that same afternoon and asked to disclose her phone PIN. “Because of this, they were able to successfully withdraw P40,000 from my credit card through its cash advance facility,” she said.

She immediately reported the incident to the bank hotline, but was informed by the bank that she was liable for the fraudulent transactions due to her disclosing her PIN to the perpetrator. The bank sent a replacement card within three to five days after being notified of her case.

Mrs. Dacanay’s case was one of the many incidents that were not elevated to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The number of those that did reached 23,000 last year, the BSP told BusinessWorld.

Majority of the consumer complaints raised were categorized under deposits, credit card and money lending. Of that number, 25% were related to credit card concerns and 24% were online banking and automated teller machine (ATM) transactions.

“We think that the volume of complaints BSP received is an indication that more people are now more aware of the BSP’s Consumer Assistance Mechanism (CAM),” the central bank said.

CAM facilitates communication between the consumer and the BSP supervised financial institutions (BSFI) to address the former’s concerns. To aid the regulator in enforcing this mechanism, it launched on August last year the BSP Online Buddy (BOB), an online chatbot system. Once the consumer submits a complaint to the chatbot, the latter will then automatically refer the complaint to the concerned BSFI to which it is expected to directly respond via e-mail to the consumer filing the complaint and address it within a given timeline. 

According to the BSP, it processed more than 25,000 conversations from the public since its launch up until end-December 2020. BOB has referred around 3,000 complaints to BSFIs or 13% of the total volume of complaints received, which are also referred to banks concerned on the same date of the complaint receipt. On average, BOB processed 21 complaints a day last year.

The central bank also cited the BSP Regulations on Financial Consumer Protection (FCP) as among the programs launched by the BSP in dealing with consumer complaints.

“Pursuant to BSP Circular No. 857 as amended by Circular 1048, consumer protection standards must always be adhered to by BSFIs including the effective redress of consumer concerns. With the amended FCP framework, BSFIs are expected to institutionalize their redress mechanism and have in place an effective FCP framework and risk management system commensurate with their business profile/operations,” the BSP said.

The central bank added the amended framework also provides BSFIs “more flexibility” in adopting and implementing their FCP framework proportionate to their asset size, structure, nature of products and services provided, and the complexity of operations.

In time for digitalization, the central bank also initiated the Digital Literacy Program that remind consumers of the importance of protecting their online banking accounts. With assistance from a strategic communications firm and the BSP media relations team, tips and messages are constantly disseminated for the public’s knowledge. These campaign messages inform consumers how to start an online account, tips on creating strong passwords, keeping personal information confidential, and warning them of phishing e-mails and spoofed websites.

“The BSP is also continuously advocating the enactment of one of its top priority measures — the proposed Financial Consumer Protection Act. The proposed measure aims to institutionalize consumer protection standards by directing financial service providers to, among others, adhere to consumer protection standards of fair and respectful treatment of clients, transparency, privacy, and protection of client data and access to redress mechanism…,” the BSP said.

In a briefing, BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said the bill will encompass the central bank’s goals in financial inclusion and education as well as good governance and tight supervision.

In fulfillment of strengthening the central bank’s consumer protection program, it has also taken steps to work with technical assistance partners to modify and improve data analytics for evidence-based decision making and an expansion of personnel to supervise its chatbot tool.

BDO FINDING WAYS
Just like any firm last year, BDO Unibank, Inc. had to adapt to the constraints imposed by community lockdowns as they operated at less than full capacity.

“Against this backdrop, we provided assistance to our employees in terms of transportation and accommodation, among others, to ensure more consistent attendance and allow us to cater to more customers and handle complaints effectively,” BDO said in an e-mail.

BDO noted common complaints from customers last year to be mostly related to electronic fund transfers and the adjustments made for loan repayment amortization schedules following the implementation of Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which provided a 30-day loan holiday. This was in contrast to the year before wherein most complaints were “transaction-related” such as withdrawal issues and online/on-site transaction disputes.

“Complaints are received via the different channels of communication… such as BDO Customer Contact Center (calls and e-mails) and social media posts. These then go through a filtering process where cases are evaluated, sorted, and forwarded to the concerned business/fulfillment units for resolution, feedback, and service recovery action (when applicable),” BDO said.

“Banks can enhance their digital capabilities to enable them to meet the evolving demands of clients,” it added. — Ana Olivia A. Tirona

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