The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission published a statement supporting proposals to amend the Philippines’ bank secrecy laws, arguing that easier access to bank information would strengthen enforcement against corruption and securities law violations and support confidence in the capital market. Several bills pending in the House of Representatives would allow the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to inquire into and examine deposits when there are reasonable grounds to believe fraud, serious irregularity or unlawful activity has been committed by stockholders, owners, directors, trustees, officers or employees of supervised institutions. The SEC said bank secrecy has constrained investigations under the Securities Regulation Code and the Revised Corporation Code, including by limiting the ability to verify companies’ declared financial position, and it argued that access to bank records would help pursue insider trading, market manipulation, investment fraud, misrepresentation and unregistered offerings, trace fund flows and reduce the need for separate court proceedings to obtain bank information. The release also cited long-standing recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for reforms to improve AML/CFT effectiveness, supervisory powers and tax transparency, and referenced the SEC’s earlier measures on beneficial ownership reporting (2019) and the prohibition of bearer shares and bearer share warrants (2021).

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