MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The laundering through the Philippines of $81 million stolen by hackers from a U.S. Federal Reserve account is adding to pressures on the Southeast Asian country to fix loopholes in its financial regime.
It also highlights a potential pitfall in global anti-money laundering efforts, which in the case of the Philippines has focused more on vanquishing terrorist financing than on preventing misuse of the financial system by banks and casinos.
The disclosure of the theft from an account of the Bangladesh central bank at the New York Fed, has given such issues fresh traction, with a front-runner for the May presidential election, Senator Grace Poe calling for a change to the Philippines’ stringent bank secrecy law.
“The trend now in the world is having bank disclosures, not bank secrecy,” Poe told reporters earlier this week. “This is to prevent also the funneling of money down to terroristic activities, drug cartels, etc. We should be one with the international community in preventing such activities.”
Sergio Osmena III, chairman of the Philippine Senate’s committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies, said Thursday he is preparing to propose amendments to the anti-money laundering law. He wants gaming, and possibly real estate brokers and art dealers, to be subject to the money laundering law and wants bank secrecy laws to be relaxed.