MANILA - - A ranking official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the problem about the automated teller machines (ATMs) of the Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI) has been resolved early Saturday.
On Friday night, some BPI clients took to social media to complain about not being able to use the ATMs or that the receipts printed by the machines showed they have millions even if their accounts do no have that much amount.
BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier said BPI reported the incident immediately.
“There was engineering maintenance of ATM machines. But deposit balances are still correct. Problem solved as of 4:30am today,” she said.
In an interview by PNA, the BSP official said the problem with the BPI ATMs was “not nationwide”.
“(It) was isolated to some ATMs,” she said.
“Maintenance work on ATMs started around 10 p.m. last night,” she added.
This kind of problem is among the reasons for the decision of the BSP’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) to approve last Thursday the proposal to require banks to submit initial report on cybersecurity breaches, or any issue on their information technology (IT) system within two hours after its discovery.
Fonacier said a circular has been drafted for this and is now awaiting signature of BSP Deputy Governor and Officer-in-Charge Almasara Cyd Tuaño-Amador.
“The MB agreed to what was laid out,” she said.
Also, BSP Supervisory Data Center Director Vicente T. De Villa III said follow-up reports that should have “more relevant details” must be submitted by the banks “within 24 (hours) from incident.”
The BSP has strengthened its policies and monitoring on cyber security threats, noting that both the regulator and industry players should be ahead of the criminals.
Several circulars have been issued directing banks to improve their IT systems to protect not only the financials institutions but also their clients and the banking industry.
Among these is Circular No. 808 issued on August 22, 2013, which classify bank’s IT risk profile as either “complex” or “simple” and is based primarily on banks’ degree of adoption of technology.
BSP has put in place corrective actions against erring banks and has established a cybersecurity ratings, which BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. earlier said are “getting better.”
He said the standards cover, among others, electronic banking (e-banking) transactions.
He said that since the standards were put in place in 2013 enhancements have been introduced and will continue to be improved to ensure that these prevent the rising number of risks. (PNA)
