BSP scheme to give bank clients more control over their personal data

MANILA, Philippines—Clients of banks, insurance firms and financial technology firms will soon have more control of their personal data and the ability to allow financial institutions to personalize products based on their usage patterns, or opt out of these services altogether.

This was the goal of the central bank’s upcoming Open Finance Framework for which the regulator is establishing an oversight committee for an industry-led self-governing body that will craft its own rules for membership, participation, procedures and setting of standards.

“In establishing the open finance ecosystem, the BSP sees the value of placing the governance of the industry into a single body with explicit formalized self-governance structure where the industry standards and inter-participant business rules are housed,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said.

The oversight committee will include representatives from banks, non-bank financial institutions, electronic money issuers, operators of payment systems and other relevant sectors.

“The committee shall promote non-discriminatory membership by ensuring that key areas of interest of the financial industry are adequately represented and that all participants and applicants for membership are treated fairly and consistently,” Diokno said.

The creation of an oversight committee is a key provision of the Open Finance Framework as provided by BSP Circular No. 1122. It governs the customer-allowed sharing of financial data that is seen to create innovative financial solutions for both customers and financial institutions.

The framework promotes consent-driven data portability, interoperability, and collaborative partnerships among entities that adhere to the same standards of data security and privacy.

The underlying idea is that customers are the owners of transaction data; thus, data should be shared if the customers wish to do so. As such, consumers will have the power to grant access to their financial data. Doing so will shape a customer-centric product development objective.

Under the framework, customers will also have opt-in and opt-out mechanisms when they want to withdraw or modify the scope of their consent in the open finance ecosystem.

TSB