Try 'shock-and-awe' public alerts

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), not the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), is empowered to regulate and has the authority to audit firms engaged in business using financial technology.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

Called "fintech" for short, these companies deliver financial services and products to consumers. This could be in the areas of banking, insurance, investing, lending, or anything that relates to finance.

Fintech is among the evolving industries in the conduct of money business online, or through the internet. Combined with the widespread use of devices and gadgets like computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, it brings a speedier and more convenient way of public transactions. But like any other technology-based business, it is highly susceptible and vulnerable to business interruptions. It can range from downtime due to offline and other unexpected system glitches to the more sinister and criminal activities like hacking and online scamming.

Thanks to the government's push for digitalization, the number of startups and fintech ventures in this industry have been steadily expanding across the Philippines. The fintech industry counts on the sustained interest of people on the ease and speed of availing of and accessing digital financial services.

A very popular fintech platform for electronic wallet (e-wallet) GCash, with about 94 million registered subscribers in our country, found itself being deluged with public complaints. The Cybercrime Investigation Coordinating Center (CICC), that includes the BSP in this inter-agency body, acted on the complaints reaching them.

Since the CICC is just an investigating body, all complaints are referred to government agencies specific to the transactions involved in the case. Thus, the BSP took over and is currently pursuing the reported GCash cases of alleged unauthorized deductions from their registered customers.