President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s call for “a comprehensive, all-inclusive plan for economic transformation" has inspired a group of Camarines Sur-based congressmen to refile a bill that would help reach out to unbanked Filipinos, particularly those in the countryside.
Camarines Sur 2nd district LRay Villafuerte led three other solons in filing House Bill (HB) No. 273, or the “Bangko sa Baryo Act (Banks in Villages Act)”.
“This proposed ‘Bangko sa Baryo Act’ endeavors to attain financial inclusion for the Filipino people and to establish robust financial consumer protection frameworks,” Villafuerte and his co-authors said in HB No. 273.
“It shall increase citizen’s financial literacy and capability so they can understand different financial services. It is hoped that, soon, an average barrio folk will be able to make sound financial decisions and put his or her hard-earned money to beneficial use," he explained.
Villafuerte cited a report on the World Bank’s (WB) Global Findex Database 2021, which estimated that about 9.23 million adult Filipinos are still unbanked. Being unbanked means a person is not served by a bank or similar financial institution.
Citing the same report, Villafuerte said the WB had claimed that in its survey of 1,000 Filipinos, 51 percent of adults interviewed revealed that they have bank accounts, 47 percent of women have bank accounts and 34 percent of poor adults have bank accounts.
“Thus, there is a definite opportunity and need to reach the financially excluded...Financial inclusion is considered a key enabler to reduce poverty and boost prosperity," the bill's authors said. They said that this is in line with what President Marcos said during his inaugural address last June 30.
Under the measure, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will tap so-called "cash agents" who will run Bangko sa Baryo outlets particularly in distant communities without banks.
The BSP-authorized cash agents “should be able to assist in performing a broad range of bank services, including forwarding account opening applications, cash-in and cash-out services, and initial customer identity verification—especially for anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism efforts," the aunthors said.
The cash agents will have to undergo rigid screening procedures by their contracting banks and by the central bank before they can be authorized to perform such banking tasks.
This bill requires every cash agent chosen by the BSP to have a clean credit history and reputation, and have a deposit account in the contracting bank where he or she is connected.
A former deputy speaker for finance, Villafuerte filed a similar bill in the 17th Congress in response to the then-new BSP guidelines and regulations allowing banks to extend their service-delivery channels by deploying cash agents, especially in far-flung and unserved communities.
The three other authors of HB No. 273 are Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte, Tsuyoshi Horibata; and Bicol Saro Party-List Rep. Nicolas Enciso VIII.