BIZ BUZZ: Who pays for losses?

In the aftermath of a sophisticated one-time-pin (OTP) breach that affected 700 of its clients, BDO Unibank has had to deal with a wave of misinformation that spooked banking clients.

The latest of which concerns an alleged amendment to the terms and conditions on the use of the BDO online banking channel, that stated that the bank won’t be held liable for any loss or damage its client may suffer out of any improper, fraudulent access or use of online channel due to any of the following: theft or unauthorized disclosure of username, passwords, ATM PINs (personal identification number), online banking PINs or violation of other security measures with or without the client’s participation.

While it’s true there is such stipulation in the terms and conditions that clients must accept, it’s not true this has been inserted by BDO only after the recent security breach. Similar terms can be found when using electronic channels of other banks too. Banks have to put these in black and white whether they like it or not.

“Liability clause is a regular compliance in the banking industry … There was no added clause due to the recent incident,” BDO said on Tuesday.

“BDO made exceptions and shouldered the losses not caused by the clients to maintain good customer relationship even if the bank is not legally liable,” it added.

Under the Monetary Authority of Singapore-style Magna Carta for e-payments that bankers and regulators are working on, a common baseline protection will be established on how to deal with losses arising from isolated unauthorized transactions or erroneous transactions and set guidance on who will bear the losses.

In the Philippines, the formula proposed is the same as the “liability shift” model adopted when the industry migrated to the EMV technology in the rollout of automated teller machines and ATM cards. This principle dictates that when there are losses incurred, the party with the least protection should pay more or all. In the case of the EMV migration, for instance, those that delayed the upgrade of their ATM terminals had to bear the losses in cases of fraud.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

No donor fatigue for SMC

You’d think that a company that has spent some P15 billion for pandemic relief services over the last two years would, by now, already be experiencing “donor fatigue” and opt to sit out the crisis wrought by Typhoon ‘Odette’ (international name: Rai).

Not San Miguel Corp.

The conglomerate said on Tuesday it had activated its network in the Visayas and Mindanao to deliver truckloads of food to typhoon-hit areas.

It also dispatched fuel stocks at its Petron installations and provided access to water at its facilities to help “fenceline” communities (people, many of them underprivileged, living on the edges of San Miguel facilities).

San Miguel president and CEO Ramon Ang said the company had, over the weekend, coordinated with various local governments to immediately extend aid to stricken cities and communities, with its donations reaching P30 million as of Dec. 20.

The provinces it has been sending food donations to are: Antique, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur, Bacolod, Bohol, Biliran, Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro, Camiguin, Cebu, Dinagat island, Davao del Sur, Eastern Samar, Guimaras, Iloilo, Leyte, Marinduque, Misamis Oriental, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Siquijor, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Tagoloan.

“We will continue to assess the situation and find more ways to help,” Ang said.

San Miguel has since mustered more resources, including a donation of 10 truckloads of food products, worth P20 million.

In Mandaue, Cebu, the San Miguel Brewery facility has opened its Henan Cortes water station to the public, providing water for free from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The water is untreated, but may be used for washing and other purposes.

Fuel subsidiary Petron is donating food products to some 3,700 families in its fenceline communities in Mandaue and Mactan, Cebu.

In Bohol, where fuel stocks had run low, Petron has sent fresh stocks of fuel. Other provinces needing fuel were assured that Petron would work to make sure their needs would be met.

—DAXIM L. LUCAS

Strike averted

Following a deadlock in the collective bargaining discussions between the labor union and management at the cement manufacturing plant of Holcim Philippines in Lugait, Misamis, the parties have pursued another route to find a middle ground and preserve industrial peace.

Holcim Philippines and Holcim Philippines Workers Union-Federation of Democratic Labor Organization, the associate union of the cement plant in Lugait, agreed to submit the pending collective bargaining agreement (CBA) provisions to voluntary arbitration. The union will no longer stage a strike even though half of its members—about 90 workers—had voted to go on strike recently.

The management vowed to “continue to work with the union to close the CBA negotiations under terms that are beneficial to both parties.”

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla