Bangko Sentral tightens QR payment safeguards

Strengthening QR Payment Safeguards 5 Key Takeaways from BSP's Latest Di
Directive

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued a directive aimed at stren
strengthening safeguards for quick response (QR) payment transactions. As p
part of this effort, we've distilled the key takeaways from the directive i
into five crucial lessons.

Lesson 1 Risk-Based Onboarding is Essential for Consistency

To ensure that account relationships remain consistent with declared purpos
purposes and are not misused for illicit activities, risk-based onboarding 
practices are crucial for both merchants and customers. This approach allow
allows financial institutions to assess potential risks and take proactive 
measures to prevent misuse.

Lesson 2 Robust Monitoring is Vital to Prevent Illicit Activities

To combat money laundering, fraud, and other unlawful activities, payment a
activities must be subject to robust monitoring and risk controls. This inc
includes continuous tracking of transactions, account activity, and custome
customer behavior to identify potential red flags.

Lesson 3 Account Opening Procedures are Critical for Consistency

Proper account opening procedures, onboarding practices, and continuous acc
account monitoring are essential to ensuring that customer relationships re
remain consistent with declared purposes. This helps prevent the misuse of 
accounts for illicit activities.

Lesson 4 Transparency is Key to Effective Risk Management

Financial institutions must maintain access to sub-merchant information, ap
apply risk-based onboarding standards, and conduct periodic reviews to dete
determine whether activities remain aligned with expected business operatio
operations. Transparency is critical in identifying potential risks and tak
taking corrective action.

Lesson 5 Collaboration is Vital for Effective AML/CTPF Controls

The BSP emphasizes the importance of collaboration among financial institut
institutions, payment aggregators, and other stakeholders to ensure that an
anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFTF) controls
controls are effective and commensurate with risk across all payment activi
activities. By working together, these entities can share best practices an
and leverage each other's expertise to stay ahead of emerging risks.

These lessons demonstrate the importance of implementing robust safeguards 
for QR payment transactions. By prioritizing risk-based onboarding, robust 
monitoring, proper account opening procedures, transparency, and collaborat
collaboration, financial institutions can help prevent illicit activities a
and maintain a secure and trusted payment ecosystem.

Edward Lance Arellano Lorilla

CEO / Co-Founder

Enjoy the little things in life. For one day, you may look back and realize they were the big things. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.