MANILA – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Benjamin Diokno said Friday he would further “strengthen” the monetary authority’s capacity to respond to cybersecurity threats.
The central bank tightened protocols in 2016 after hackers transferred $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve to a branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in Makati City, at that time the largest cyber heist on record.
“Knowing that IT security issues have systemic implications, the BSP, under my leadership, shall continue strengthening the BSP’s ability to address these threats,” Diokno told reporters.
“I see these multi-faceted undertakings ultimately benefiting the Filipino people with stable prices and a sound financial system that ably manages funds entrusted to it by savers and investors,” he said.
The Philippines was ranked as the world’s third most affected country in terms of online banking fraud, a 2016 study from internet security firm Trend Micro showed.
Local banks recently replaced magnetic stripe ATM cards with chip-based technology to fight fraud.
Other lenders earlier said they were studying the possibility of incorporating biometrics in withdrawal transactions to fortify their defenses against fraudsters. (ABS-CBN News)
