The Central Bank of the Philippines has issued operational guidelines for Bangko Sentral-supervised institutions to report temporarily held disputed funds and to submit an annual notarized certification under the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act framework and BSP Circular No. 1215. For banks, electronic money issuers, virtual asset service providers and other supervised institutions enrolled in the ASTERisC platform, submission of the Report on Temporarily-Held Funds through ASTERisC takes effect on 09 July 2026. Monthly reports are due on or before the 15th of the following month, and no filing is required if no funds were held during the reference month, with non-submission treated as a formal declaration that no funds were held. The ASTERisC data entry template is being deployed immediately for existing users, alongside the user manual, instructional videos, data import template and Control Prooflist. A scanned Control Prooflist in PDF must be attached to each monthly record and signed by the institution's president or chief executive officer and chief compliance officer, or officers of equivalent rank designated by the board. The initial THF report is due on 15 September 2026 and covers August 2026 data. For other supervised institutions not covered by the ASTERisC filing arrangement, the existing THF submission guidelines under BSP Circular No. 1215 remain applicable. Separately, any supervised institution that initiated or effected temporary holding of disputed funds during the immediately preceding year must, within 30 calendar days from year-end, execute and submit a notarized certification of compliance with BSP requirements on adequate risk management systems and controls. The certification template requires confirmation that the institution had controls to secure digital channels and customer accounts, relevant policies and procedures, regular vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, and procedures for coordinated verification and temporary holding of funds.
Central Bank of the Philippines2026-06-24
Central Bank of the Philippines sets ASTERisC reporting and annual certification requirements for temporarily held disputed funds
The Central Bank of the Philippines has issued filing guidelines for monthly reports on temporarily held disputed funds through ASTERisC and for annual notarized compliance certifications under its anti-scam rules. ASTERisC reporting takes effect on 09 July 2026 for banks, electronic money issuers, virtual asset service providers and other enrolled supervised institutions, with the first report due on 15 September 2026 for August 2026 data. Institutions that effected temporary holding during the prior year must also submit a notarized certification within 30 calendar days after year-end.