Resolved cases of online transaction complaints increase

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported a growing number of resolved complaints involving online financial transactions, with a steadily improving success rate in mediation.

During a briefing held at the BSP office, Charina de Vera-Yap, Managing Director of the Financial Inclusion and Consumer Empowerment Sub-Sector, shared that 322 mediation cases were handled in 2023, with a 69% success rate favoring the complainants. This improved further in 2024, with 703 cases and an 83% success rate.

For the first five months of 2025, 400 mediation cases have already been filed. However, Yap did not disclose how many have been resolved so far. She emphasized that these are cases that reached the BSP, as complaints are typically first addressed by the concerned financial institutions.

“Because as mentioned by DG (Deputy Governor Elmore Capule), the first level of recourse, if ever making a complaint, is your financial institution,” Yap said. “So we assume na at that point, na-resolve na sya sa level ng financial institution.”

The BSP cited the increasing number of transaction-related complaints as a key reason behind its strong support for the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA), signed into law in July 2024.

The law is designed to combat fraudulent schemes such as phishing and vishing that compromise personal banking information. Its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) will take effect on June 25, 2025, giving financial institutions a year to comply with enhanced security protocols.

These include upgraded authentication methods beyond one-time passwords (OTP) to safeguard account holders. Capule warned that institutions failing to meet the requirements could face serious consequences.

“Pag di nila ma-meet yun, maraming consequence(s). One, administrative sanctions. Number 2, if somebody gets defrauded and their system is not ready, they can be held the ones civilly liable,” he said.