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Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is calling on his fellow lawmakers to act swiftly on the measure he partly proposed, which aims to add more teeth to the efforts of regulatory agencies to combat cybercrimes by penalizing social engineering schemes or “phishing.”

Some senators on Thursday have called on the country’s banks to take responsibility for the operations of their “cash agents” to make sure that the banking public is protected, especially those who rely on “padala” or money sent by relatives to help them get by during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Senator Grace Poe has called on banks, money transfer companies and regulators to increase their efforts in protecting the remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Financial technology (fintech) companies in the Philippines are poised to overtake brick and mortar banks, debt-watcher Moody’s Investors Service said.

The Philippine banking system’s total assets went up by 4.10 percent year-on-year to P19.536 trillion end-May from P18.766 trillion same time in 2020, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data.

COVID-related hits on local banks’ asset quality will critically affect their stand-alone credit profiles and viability ratings (VR), said Fitch Ratings.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) approved four new banking offices in the last quarter of 2020 compared to 67 new branch applications in the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

The local banking industry implemented a new system of charging fees for ATMs which started yesterday, April 7, 2021.

Philippine banks are expected to report a bad loans ratio of six percent this year while a return to profits pre-health crisis could come as late as 2023, according to credit watcher S&P Global Ratings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put on hold foreign banks’ plan to establish local units or branches in the Philippines.