BSP to ink info sharing agreement with China

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is expected to sign an information sharing scheme with China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), a ranking BSP official said.

BSP Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla said the Monetary Board (MB), the policy-making body of the BSP, has authorized the Philippine central bank to proceed with this "cross-border supervision information sharing arrangement" with other bank regulators in 10 countries including People’s Republic of China.

The other bank regulators that are being eyed by BSP to share information with are: Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Netherlands, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Germany and USA.

Espenilla said the BSP currently has some "working relationships" with other countries’ bank regulators.

"We already have existing arrangements with some bank regulators. Some of these arrangements would not need require a written agreement but we would like to have a formal approval from MB just in case we will need to enter into a written agreement to establish information sharing with other countries‚ bank regulators," he said.

This information-sharing agreement, Espenilla said, would enable the BSP to keep abreast of internationally-accepted bank operations and regulations.

"We recognize the fact that we need information from other bank regulators. This is a non-public arrangement and would be purely regulator-to-regulator agreement," he said.

Entering into such scheme, he said, is also part of the BSP’s commitment to combat money-laundering and other cross-border banking crimes.

Within the local front, the MB also supported that sharing of information between the BSP and Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC).

Recently, the MB gave its approval for the BSP and PDIC to effect a memorandum of agreement (MOA) which will allow them to conduct joint examination of banks.

The MOA is aimed at establishing an overall framework for the two government financial regulators to effectively supervise banks through the conduct of joint examination or independent examination.

MB noted that the approval of the MOA is consistent with the existing banking rules and laws.

Under the MOA, the BSP and the PDIC will establish a common framework on joint examination for a more effective examination coverage.

This MOA will also avoid duplication of efforts in the same functional areas over the same period.

The MOA also provides a framework for the prompt sharing and exchange of relevant reports, significant information and preliminary findings on individual banks resulting from the conduct of independent on-site examinations by either BSP or PDIC.

Republic Act No. 7653 (The New Central Bank Act), PDIC’s authority to conduct examination of banks with prior approval of the MB, on the other hand, is provided under Sec. 8 of RA 3591 (PDIC Charter), as amended.