In photo: Lito Villanueva, founding chairman of Fintech Alliance.ph. and Atty. Mel Racela, Executive Secretary of the AMLC during the signing of Information Sharing Protocol between FinTech Alliance.ph and Anti-Money Laundering Council
Bolstering its commitment to fight money laundering and terrorism financing in the country, the Fintech Alliance.PH signed the Information Sharing Protocol (ISP) with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) last November 3 in a virtual event via Zoom.
Witnessing the milestone protocol signing are key personalities and institutions in the country’s financial technology and digital sector.
With the increased use of fintech applications over the course of this pandemic, there has also been a significant increase in the number of digital transactions in the Philippines. As such, it gave rise to concerns such as online fraud and cyberattacks which could jeopardize the trust that various stakeholders have to the country’s financial system.
“This partnership between the public and private sector aims to eliminate money laundering activities, terrorism financing, and other illegal activities that may negatively disrupt the country’s financial ecosystem,” said Lito Villanueva, founding chairman of Fintech Alliance.ph.
The AMLC is the Philippines’ Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). But unlike most FIUs, the AMLC is a hybrid FIU with the authority to receive and analyze suspicious transaction reports; investigate money laundering and terrorism financing, and cause the filing of forfeiture proceedings and money laundering cases.
“The AMLC and Fintech Alliance.ph recognize a genuine culture of trust, partnership, and cooperation to achieve shared objectives. Consultations on the strategic priorities and plans and the sharing of information are crucial as well. This is an alternative to the rigid rule-based approach to compliance with the law where the government presents itself as an authority ensuring compliance under the consequence of penalty and sanctions,” added Atty. Mel Racela, Executive Secretary of the AMLC.
The AMLC and Fintech Alliance.ph will also collaborate in the areas of information exchange, and capacity building to enhance each other’s abilities to address money laundering, terrorism, and terrorism financing concerns. It also institutionalizes an effective documentation mechanism that performs targeted suspicious transaction monitoring and reporting and develops valuable or breakthrough investigative leads.
By signing this ISP agreement, both parties hope to continue upholding the trust that stakeholders have invested to the country’s financial system through the years.
“The AMLC has always been eager to collaborate with various agencies and organizations in detecting both criminal acts and money laundering to reinforce the public confidence in the country’s financial system,” Atty. Racela added.
FinTech Alliance.ph is composed of digital and fintech companies from startups to unicorns, generating close to 90 percent of the volume of fintech-initiated transactions in the country today. It also established the fintech sector’s code of conduct and code of ethics in partnership with Philippine regulators governing its members, adopting global standards on corporate governance and techno-ethics.