Right before the year 2021 ended, a viral piece of financial news broke the internet: Bando de Oro (BDO) had been hacked, leading to losses for users. To sum it all up, there was an advanced phishing scam in place which managed to bypass security measures such as 2FA. Those who fell victim lost in the tens to hundreds of thousands of pesos, which were then sent to a UnionBank account under a dummy name and allegedly converted into crypto. Both banks reimbursed all the victims, but the BSP has now still announced to issue sanctions to both BDO and UnionBank for this incident’s occurrence in the first place.
According to numerous reports, the Monetary Board has decided to punish BDO and UnionBank for this entire debacle. Not many specifics have been given about how these banks will be penalized, however. Netizens have stipulated that these could be through financial penalties, suspension of certain officials, and other traditional means. The goal here is to reinforce the importance of having failsafe cybersecurity measures that stay up-to-date and move even faster than hackers can devise new strategies. This is to protect the integrity of our financial systems locally and support consumer trust.
UnionBank and BDO have both released statements regarding the BSP sanctions. UnionBank has claimed that there were no monetary penalties imposed on their company, but they will work with the BSP to make changes in order to safeguard the Philippine financial landscape moving forward. BDO also made claims following those lines. Both have committed to accepting whatever is doled on them by the governing body.
Hopefully, that’s the last we’ll hear about this incident. It was a hot topic when it broke out and was set ablaze even further when netizens called out the new liability clause on the BDO Terms and Conditions. BDO was right to continue on the reimbursements, although many say that their PR team could have handled this more smoothly. Despite this, the fact that the issue has been on the down-low for the past few months until now means that those who fell victim to the scam were compensated adequately.
Featured image: BusinessWorld Online
