MANILA -The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has allowed digital identification of bank clients and the verification of this under the rules of customer due diligence (CDD), which requires banks to know their customers.
The Monetary Board approved the amendments to the BSP’s CDD regulations, particularly the inclusion of guidelines on electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) using digital identity system.
“The policy enhancements promote seamless remote identity verification by leveraging on the use of technology and existing e-KYC systems,” MB chair and BSP Governor Felipe Medalla said in a statement.
“e-KYC is one of the key enablers to promote innovation and digital transformation aimed at advancing our financial inclusion agenda,” Medalla said.
The guidelines recognize the use of e-KYC through the digital ID system and provide the minimum requirements for BSP-Supervised Financial Institutions or BSFIs in the conduct of e-KYC.
In particular, the latter should be anchored on robust information and communication technology architecture and tiered or risk-based e-KYC policies and procedures with commensurate onboarding requirements and authentication assurance levels.
Further, the amended rules highlight that the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys)-enabled e-KYC, which the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is expected to launch, is an acceptable system for e-KYC under the PhilSys Act and its revised implementing rules and regulations.
The anticipated PhilSys-enabled e-KYC will be allowed subject to PSA’s applicable guidelines and full implementation of the authentication procedures/methods and other related systems under the PhilSys.
Financial institutions that are supervised by the BSP and with existing e-KYC systems are given one year to comply with the prescribed e-KYC requirements.
Meanwhile, those that intend to shift to an e-KYC system are expected to comply with the provisions of the new circular before the implementation of such a system.