BSP to review LitePay transactions
Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2019 16:55:54 +0000
THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) assured the public that it would review lenders that had transactions with LitePay, the remittance arm of Westpac Banking Corp., which was accused of violating Australia’s money-laundering laws 23 million times.
In a statement on Thursday, the central bank said it was informed by one of its supervised banks that it had been used as an entry point of Westpac’s alleged dirty money.
Although the BSP did not identify the lender, Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) earlier admitted the transactions, which were also channeled to other local banks.
According to BSP Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier, the funds that entered BPI’s system was received by about 10 local bank recipients, which she refused to identify.
That said, the Bangko Sentral stressed in the statement that it “is closely coordinating with the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat and other identified institutions to gather additional information and verify details of the transactions.”
“The duration of the onsite review, which will be a focused look on the remittance transactions and processes, will depend on the extent of information that we will be able to gather,” it added.
For its part, BPI said it considered the alleged failures of Westpac’s LitePay facility as a very serious concern.
“We have always worked closely with the regulators and authorities to ensure continued compliance with both domestic and global money-laundering laws and regulations,” it emphasized in a separate statement.
The bank explained that Westpac’s clients used their LitePay platform to send remittances to the Philippines for BPI to fulfill, whether for credit to the accounts of BPI clients or for those of other local banks.
“At the time of initiation of the partnership, Westpac made representations and warranties that they are in compliance with all applicable regulations,” it said.
BPI noted that from July 2016 to October 2019, only 61,687 transactions were coursed through its system and credited to various recipient banks in the Philippines.
“Of this number, 34 percent was credited to BPI accounts, the second largest in terms of transaction count,” it added.
The bank also said that, of the 23 million Westpac transactions cited by Australia’s anti-money-laundering and terrorism financing regulator Austrac, only 0.27 percent was coursed through its system.
BPI suspended its agreement with LitePay on November 24.