The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Jerry Maglunog
The Bankers’ Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) have jointly issued a warning against a certain Global Investment Bank, or GIB Philippines Bank Ltd., which, according to the central bank, is currently engaged in unauthorized banking activity.
Lorenzo Tan, president of the BAP, said no bank with such name was listed as a member of the 34-bank association.
A press statement from the BSP echoed the BAP warning—that no such bank as Global Investment Bank or GIB is authorized to operate in the country. The bogus bank has a website listed as http://www.gibank.net, according to the BSP.
The central bank said on its website that GIB is introducing itself as a legitimate bank that’s allowed to take deposits and capable of conducting international transactions.
This bank has no certificate of authority to operate as a bank in the Philippines and does not have a license to accept deposits, it added.
“GIB is a fake. We have issued a warning advisory and referred the matter to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation),” Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in a text message. Espenilla is BSP deputy governor for the supervision and examination sector.
The central bank also warned the public against fraudsters who mislead potential victims by providing a link in their website to a spoof or fake BSP website created purposely to deceive prospective depositors and make it appear that their “banks” are listed as BSP-supervised entities.
To make sure that the correct website is accessed, the URL (uniform resource locator) should be directly entered into the web browser, instead of clicking links from unknown sources.
The BSP said a website is secured if there is an “https” in the URL and a closed padlock icon on the status or address bar of the browser. It would also be prudent to avoid doing online financial transactions from Internet cafés or public computer terminals, the BSP said.
“This will minimize the risk that sensitive information such as usernames and passwords are retained in such terminals and eventually end up being used to conduct unauthorized transactions on behalf of the legitimate user,” the central bank said.
It advised everyone to avoid opening—and to immediately delete—unsolicited messages, spam or junk e-mail to avoid falling prey to the scammers.
A visit at the GIB website shows that its testimonials are full of grammatical errors.
“Philippines—the small island territory in the ocean. Are attractive to the global financial elite with obtaining licenses Bank and Trust. It’s very convenient to run the offshore banking and get the growing needs of entrepreneurs and companies to perform various business and personal savings,” one of the entries in the otherwise elaborate website reads.
“In modern conditions of the ruling government and regulators that it is becoming increasingly difficult to save money by tax charges that sometimes exceeds all reasonable limits,” another part of its statement reads.
At first glance, the website looks legitimate; it even has complete line of officials and lists several “awards” it “won” on several occasions, including Best Bank in Asia Pacific (2014), Best Investment Bank in the Philippines (2013), Best in Working Capital and Trade Finance in Asia Pacific (2013) and Best Asian International Transaction Bank (2013).
Its chief officer in the Philippines is identified as Graeme Wheeler, who is introduced as a former top official of World Bank from 1997 to 2010. The Graeme Wheeler listed in Wikipedia is the current governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, not chief officer-Philippines of GIB Philippines Bank.