Photo Release

January 17, 2022

Financial Consumer Protection Act necessary in the new normal: Sen. Grace Poe presides over the Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies, together with the Committee on Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship, virtual hearing Monday, January 17, 2022 on several measures seeking to protect financial consumers from digital crimes. While the number of banked Filipino adults expanded by 53 percent during the first quarter of 2021 due to the rise of e-money accounts, Poe highlights the risks and challenges that financial consumers face such as small scale fraud, investment scams, and financial hacking, among others. Citing data from credit reporting company TransUnion dated March 2021, Poe said 44 percent of Filipinos have been targeted by digital fraud while fraud attempts against businesses have risen by 31 percent. “The increase in financial inclusion resulted in the marked increase in incidence of financial fraud and scams… thus the need for the law that lists all rights of financial consumers – these are your ordinary depositors, consumers, policy holders – to protect their interests. This law shall also ensure that our financial service providers are operating optimally and the regulators to oversee the system with utmost efficiency.” (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)

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