THE PHILIPPINE banking industry, in cooperation with the government and private sector, is set to boost its cybersecurity-related technology spending to improve the delivery of financial services, the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) said.
“Banks throughout the Philippines are set to ramp up their technology-related investments, seeing it as a way to boost their operational efficiencies and enhance the quality of their services to consumers,” it said in a statement.
The BAP is the lead organization of Philippine universal and commercial banks. It has 43 members, made up of 19 local banks and 24 foreign bank branches.
The industry group said Philippine banks will employ a “whole-of-ecosystem approach” to cybersecurity and work with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and other government agencies such as the Department of Information and Communications Technology and National Privacy Commission.
“This approach would include other private-sector entities such as fintech (financial technology) firms, e-commerce companies, and telcos,” it said.
Coordinated initiatives would include joint public advisories on cyber hygiene, the creation of a national scam or fraud database, and the launch of consumer education campaigns, real-time coordination protocols between the private sector and government agencies, and the standardization of scam typologies, the group added.
“This would boost the banking industry’s existing initiatives — which include ramping up spending on cybersecurity infrastructure, awareness campaigns, and introducing innovative cybersecurity measures to replace existing mechanisms, such as one-time passwords,” the BAP said.
“The industry’s future initiatives come at a critical juncture for the Marcos administration, with public policy likely to have a significant impact on Philippine banks,” it added.
BSP-supervised financial institutions lost P5.82 billion due to cyberattacks in 2024, up 2.6% from the previous year, the central bank earlier said.
An estimated 84.5% of Philippine organizations experienced an average of three cybersecurity breaches last year due to gaps in cyber risk management, according to a survey by cyber defense company BlueVoyant. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
