Financial regulators agree on framework for info exchange

Unscrupulous companies will no longer be able to file conflicting reports with different regulatory agencies as financial institutions agreed to share information filed by regulated entities.

The Financial Sector Forum (FSF) formally established this week an information sharing framework between the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Insurance Commission (IC), Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The memorandum of agreement (MOA) on information exchange was signed by the heads of its four participating agencies — BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr., SEC chairperson Fe B. Barin, IC commissioner Evangeline Crisostomo-Escobillo, and PDIC officer-in-charge Imelda S. Singzon.

According to the BSP, the multilateral MOA laid out a framework for the sharing of relevant reports and information highly essential in effectively performing the complementary mandates and regulatory functions of each agency over financial institutions.

The BSP said the sharing framework would take into account the disclosure prohibitions and the parties agree to strictly observe confidentiality rules on shared data.

Tetangco said the MOA also supplemented existing bilateral data sharing arrangements among member agencies.

According to Tetangco, the MOA would include an inventory of reports which would principally provide a description of each report, its source agency, and the frequency each report is submitted to and generated by the source agency.

Tetangco said the agreement would also facilitate the creation of a universal master-list of all accredited reputation agents among FSF credit rating agencies and appraisal companies.

The master-list would also include the standards or criteria applied by each agency in accrediting these reputation agents.

"This paves the way for a consultation process among FSF member agencies in formulating regulations on reports required for submission from its regulated financial institutions," Tetangco said.

Regulators said problem situations arenormally easy to prevent if regulatory agencies share information that would prevent unscrupulous companies from prolonging or aggravating emerging problems by covering them up.

As long as the participating agencies agree to share information to cross-check the reports of different regulated entities, internal problems with potential systemic risk would not spiral out of control.