After pilot-testing in July and August, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said its consumer chatbot or “BOB” for “BSP Online Buddy” is now live and accepting the public’s complaints against banks and other BSP-supervised financial institutions (BSFIs).

BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said BOB, the BSP’s consumer assistance management system (CAMS) chatbot, is part of its financial services innovations to use technology for an “accessible, continuous, timely and efficient platform for escalating complaints against BSFIs.”

It will handle queries in English, Tagalog or Taglish, sent through the webchat in the BSP Website, SMS, or social media such as Facebook messenger.

“Aside from enhancing BSP’s quality of service, BOB empowers financial consumers by giving them a more accessible channel for raising complaints,” said Diokno.

The BSP’s Center for Learning and Inclusion Advocacy will manage BOB. It will receive complaints using artificial intelligence and “natural language processing”.

“With its ability to provide adequate responses and to automatically refer concerns to the BSFI concerned for action, the chatbot also enables BSP to gain valuable insights into customer experiences and banking practices,” said the BSP.

In a memo (Memorandum No. M-2020-059) signed by BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier last month, all of BOB’s correspondences will automatically be processed through the system’s document tracking system which will record and keep an inventory of said correspondences without delay and effectively avoid any loss of data.

Fonacier said BOB has the capacity to automatically generate statistical reports relative to these data.

She also reminded banks to observe the BSP guidelines for the handling of complaints referred by BSP using the chatbot.