Albay Rep. Joey Salceda
MANILA-- A bill providing for a regulatory framework for consumer financial protection has been filed at the House of Representatives.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, filed on Tuesday House Bill 5976, which aims to protect the interest of financial consumers and reinforce their confidence in the financial market to foster the stability of the Philippine financial system.
The bill seeks to upgrade the powers of financial regulators, such as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Insurance Commission (IC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to ensure that the rights of every consumer are protected.
Under the proposal, financial regulators shall be granted rulemaking, surveillance and inspection, market monitoring, and enforcement powers relative to consumer protection.
The bill proposes the establishment of the Financial Stability Oversight Coordinating Council, which shall be a body for coordination among the regulators to address all potential threats to the financial system and provide a broader, inter-agency venue for financial stability.
The proposed council shall identify risks to the financial stability of the Philippines that could arise from the material financial distress or failure, or ongoing activities, of all financial persons, especially large, interconnected bank holding companies or nonbank financial companies, or that could arise outside the financial services marketplace
The bill also proposes the institutionalization of the Financial Consumer Protection Department (FCPD) as a unit in the BSP.
In addition to existing powers and functions of the FCPD over BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFI), the FCPD shall have oversight and enforcement powers over nonbank financial companies that it shall supervise. (PNA)
