Laundering bill won’t lift secrecy of bank de

The anti-money laundering bill will not lift bank deposit secrecy but only add new legal grounds for deposits to be subjected to investigation, the Bankers Association of the Philippines said in a statement.

It added that the bill would break the absolute confidentiality given to foreign exchange deposits through a presidential decree issued by the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The BAP issued the statement to assure the public that bank secrecy would remain, although under conditions that would discourage money laundering and consequently curb other crimes that generate the dirty money in the first place, such as graft, drug trafficking, and kidnapping for ransom.

The association said the bill has enough safeguards to prevent the indiscriminate scrutiny of deposits, including penalties for banks and bank employees and officials who reveal deposit information outside the grounds enumerated in the bill and in existing laws.

Under existing laws, the secrecy of peso deposits can be lifted only in the following instances; (1) upon written permission by the depositor; (2) in case of impeachment; (3) on order of a court, in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of a public official; and (4) in case the money is the subject matter of litigation.

The bill, which was drafted by an inter-agency committee composed of representatives from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and from the Departments of Finance, Justice, and Foreign Affairs, proposes to make money laundering a crime but provides for strict parameters before suspect money can be examined.

For one, it requires substantial evidence. Also, the Anti-Money Laundering Board alone, with the concurrence of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, has the authority to order investigation into a deposit.

The Monetary Board, which is composed of ranking government officials from various agencies and representatives of the private sector, in effect serves as a check against the proposed Anti-Money Laundering Board.

Moreover, any findings by the board shall not be used for any other purposes such as in a tax evasion case, the BAP said.

The Anti-Money Laundering Board will have four permanent members with a tenure of six years, and five ex-officio members: the justice, finance, local government and foreign secretaries, and the BSP governor. These people will have jurisdiction over companies regulated by the BSP, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Cooperative Development Authority, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the Games and Amusement Board, the Department of Tourism, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, and the Insurance Commission.

The anti-money laundering bill does not cover deposits of P500,000 and below, transactions with the government, and transactions with a "properly identified customer and (where) the amount is reasonably commensurate with the client’s business or status."

The anti-money laundering bill imposes stiff penalties on unlawful tip-offs and bars the use of information gathered in any investigation to prosecute tax-related cases.