Are cybercriminals smarter than BSP’s cyber experts?

Why is the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) putting the blame on the Filipino people for its dismal failure to inspire confidence in the banking system?

Is this what its officials have to show for all the obscene MILLIONS PER MONTH they receive in salaries, allowances, bonuses, incentives, and other perks and privileges—despite the near bankruptcy of the government on account of the still-raging pandemic?

In the news lately was the hacking of the public school teachers’ Landbank accounts. BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno explained: “Hackers and scammers took advantage of the digital infrastructure and consumer vulnerability … Based on the BSP monitoring, the increased use by the public of digital financial services has given rise to a wave of cyber and financial and crimes” (“Not customers’ burden alone,” Editorial, 1/27/22). What a brilliant discovery of the obvious!

But as pointed out by the editorial: “Clearly, not all of these can be blamed on the customers unknowingly sharing their information with others. Rather, they point to weaknesses that banks and financial institutions must immediately address.” From where the customers see it, the BSP has been sleeping on the job. Why could it not have detected the cracks and the flaws in the banking system that enable hackers to do nefarious things? What exactly was it “monitoring”? Are the cybercriminals really much smarter than the BSP’s so-called “cyber experts” who always seem to be caught with their pants down?

And as if that gross incompetence were not enough, here was another one of BSP’s really stupid advisories warning the public against “fake bills from ATMs,” and again virtually putting the blame on bank customers for not being vigilant enough about the money they are withdrawing from their banks’ automatic teller machines by “regularly inspecting banknotes for authenticity.” Here’s a flash for the BSP: Those banknotes are coming from the banks which are supposed to be the experts at determining whether the money they put in their ATMs are counterfeit or genuine! Seriously, how is the public to know anything about the “feel, look, tilt” approach as a “precautionary measure” against banks dispensing counterfeit bills through their ATMs?

Bottom line is, the BSP is just all talk, very seldom bothering to make the real walk to protect the interest of bank depositors. For crying out loud, it seems more concerned with the profits banks are making from lending their depositors’ money at interest rates ranging from two to three percent PER MONTH, while immutably fixing the interest depositors earn from banks at about half of one percent PER ANNUM, less taxes!

Stephen L. Monsanto, lexsquare.firm@gmail.com