#financial institutions

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is proposing to require banks, e-wallet providers, digital lenders, and other regulated financial institutions to connect their customer verification systems to the government’s National ID database. Under a draft memorandum, nearly all BSP-supervised institutions would need to onboard with the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) National ID Authentication Services (NIDAS) for customer due diligence, including account opening and identity verification. The BSP said NIDAS would allow financial institutions to use biometric and demographic verification to support secure and reliable digital customer identification. Other universal and commercial banks, thrift banks, rural and cooperative banks, covered payment system operators, and other BSP-supervised institutions would have six months to comply. Financial institutions registered after the memorandum takes effect would also be required to comply within the applicable three- or six-month period from their registration date. The BSP clarified that the proposal would not prevent financial institutions from accepting other valid identification documents or using alternative verification methods, particularly when customers do not have a National ID or when NIDAS is unavailable. Financial institutions would still be required to maintain appropriate anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing controls, cybersecurity safeguards, data protection measures, governance arrangements, and customer consent mechanisms. Read more in our articles including "BSP proposes linking banks, e-wallets to National ID database" and "CIMB Bank offers PHP 10,000 assistance to customers who have contracted the COVID-19 virus".