COMPLIANCE OFFICER

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (formerly known as the Central Bank of the Philippines), in it is press release dated January 4, 2008, requires Banks to have their fulltime compliance Officers.


The Monetary Board, the policy making body of the BSP, tightened existing rules governing the compliance function as part of continuing efforts to raise the bar on corporate governance among banks as well as quasi-banks (QBs).


Under existing rules, universal banks and commercial banks (UBs/KBs) are required to appoint an independent full-time compliance officer who shall have the rank of at least a Vice President and whose principal function shall be to oversee the institution’s compliance with applicable laws, rules and standards. On a case-to-case basis, these banks are allowed to designate an incumbent senior officer, including the Internal Auditor, as the bank’s compliance officer provided that no conflict of interest situation shall arise and that his main function shall be that of a compliance officer. For other types of banks such as thrift banks (TBs), rural banks and cooperative banks (RBs/Coop banks) as well as QBs, an incumbent senior officer may also be designated concurrently as compliance officer provided that there is no conflict of interest and that his main function shall be that of compliance officer.


Under the new rules, all UBs/KBs, as well as TBs, RBs/Coop banks and QBs with total resources of P500 million and above are now required to appoint an independent full-time compliance officer who shall have the rank of at least a Vice President or its equivalent. It is viewed that with at least P500 million in total resources, said institutions should already be able to afford the appointment of a full-time independent compliance officer.


On the other hand, TBs, RBs/Coop banks and QBs with total resources of below P500 million shall still be allowed to designate an incumbent senior officer, including the Internal Auditor, concurrently as the bank’s compliance officer provided that such designation will not give rise to any conflict of interest situation and that the main function of the senior officer shall be that of a compliance officer.


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