BSP to public: Report non-acceptance of national ID

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is encouraging all bank clients or customers to report a bank that refuses to accept their national IDs in opening a bank account or other bank-related transactions. BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi G. Fonacier, who is in charge of the Financial Supervision Sector of the central bank, said the national ID, both its digital and physical card version, is an acceptable identification for bank transactions. Since 2021, the BSP has instructed all banks and non-banks to accept the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ID or the national ID as sufficient proof of identity to open a bank account. The BSP however are receiving random reports of banks refusing to accept the national ID to validate a depositor’s identity because the card itself does not display the person’s signature. “We’ve issued advisories on this,” said Fonacier. Fonacier also said that BSP refers these banks or non-banks that do not accept the national ID to its Financial System Integrity Department (FSID), formerly known as the Anti-Money Laundering Specialist Group, for investigation. “Let us know,” she said, stressing the point that the public should report these incidences to the BSP for proper handling. “Then we will inform the banks. We will address this concern,” she added in Filipino. The BSP first issued Memorandum No. M-2021-057 in Oct. 2021 following an advisory by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), that all government and private entities should accept the Philsys ID, also known as the Philippine Identification (PhilID) card as proof of identity, subject to proper authentication. The BSP has been reminding supervised financial institutions to accept the PhilID in both physical and mobile formats, without the need for another ID. The ID will be authenticated via online and offline methods using physical security features, QR code digital verification, biometric verification, and SMS one-time password. The BSP has directed banks and non-banks to include the national ID in their list of valid IDs to be displayed on their counters, public entrances of their establishments, websites, social media accounts, and other consumer information channels. The BSP said PhilSys records are considered as official and sufficient proof of identity and a reliable and independent source of verification. Meanwhile, the PhilID has already undergone identity proofing, enrollment, authentication and “identity life cycle management processess”. It contains the PhilSys number, date and place of birth of the BSFI customer, nationality, address, and biometrics, among others. As of February this year, the government via the PSA has already issued 50,176,726 national IDs. The BSP prints the national ID cards which are free. It costs the government P30 per card. The card production is done at the BSP’s Security Plant Complex in Quezon City where banknotes are also printed. The Philippine Postal Corp. or Philpost is responsible for the delivery of the cards. Of the over 50 million issued IDs, 32,418,837 cards were dispatched by the PSA, while Philpost delivered the rest of 24,933,235 cards.