Malaca±ang: Malaca±ang on Thursday called on banks to come up with new policies to mitigate cyber fraud and attacks. This, after financial institutions supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas lost PHP5.82 billion from cyberattacks in 2024, higher by 2.6 percent from the recorded PHP5.67 billion worth of losses in 2023.

According to Philippines News Agency, Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro emphasized the need to strengthen the financial sector’s cyber resilience during a press briefing. She highlighted the importance of banks revising their internal policies to better address the increasing threat of cyberattacks.

Castro also announced plans for infomercials and information dissemination campaigns to educate the public and prevent them from falling victim to scams. ‘Crime is really evolving. So, our projects, our rules here must also be upgraded,’ she stated, underscoring the necessity for adaptive measures in crime prevention.

Under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) circular, all supervised financial institutions are mandated to submit regular and event-driven reports covering technology-related information, as well as incidences of major cyberattacks. The central bank’s data revealed an increase in the number of reports on crimes and losses submitted by supervised institutions, rising from 40,572 in 2023 to 40,780 in 2024.

Last year, BSP-supervised institutions faced top cybersecurity risks, including phishing, ‘card-not-present’ fraud, account takeover or identity fraud, and hacking. Estimated losses due to phishing and card-not-present fraud rose to PHP1.8 billion and PHP1.5 billion, respectively, the BSP reported.