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Country Guide: Securities and Banking 

July, 2013 - Rafael A. Morales

Banks are classified into universal banks, commercial banks, thrift banks (composed of savings and mortgage banks, stock savings, loan associations and private development banks), rural banks, cooperative banks, and Islamic banks. The General Banking Law governs primarily universal and commercial banks, as well as cooperative banks. With regard to other banks, Section 71 of the General Banking Law provides that the organization, ownership, capitalization, and powers of thrift banks, rural banks and Islamic banks, as well as the general conduct of their businesses, are to be governed by the Thrift Banks Act, the Rural Banks Act and the Charter of Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, respectively. The General Banking Law is also applicable to these other banks, however, insofar as it is not in conflict with the provisions of the special laws governing such banks. 


Regulators

The operations and activities of banks are subject to the supervision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine central bank. The BSP also has supervision over quasi-banks and trust entities. The BSP is the central monetary authority in the Philippines. While the BSP is a government-owned corporation, it enjoys fiscal and administrative autonomy. It therefore functions as an independent and accountable body corporate in the discharge of its mandated responsibilities concerning money, banking and credit. Supervision not only contemplates the promulgation by the BSP of rules of conduct and standards of operations for banks, but also visitorial powers. These powers are the conduct of examination and investigation of the activities of banks with a view to determining their compliance with those rules and standards, and enforcing prompt corrective action. The ultimate aim is to ensure the continued solvency and liquidity of banks, in line with capital adequacy rules based on Basel II and eventually Basel III. 


The powers and functions of the BSP is exercised by its monetary board, composed of seven members appointed by the President of the Philippines for a term of six years each. The chairman of the monetary board is the governor of the BSP. Banks are required to insure their deposit liabilities with the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is empowered to examine, with monetary board approval, member banks to determine whether they are engaging in unsafe and unsound banking practices. 


Securities regulation

The Securities Regulation Code and its implementing rules govern the offering of securities to the public within the Philippines. The overarching policy of the SRC is the protection of the investing public — starting from the registration process and full disclosure of information about the issuer and the securities being offered, the registration of the exchanges and other securities trading markets, the regulation of securities market professionals (such as brokers and dealers, including their salesmen), through to trading regulation and the enforcement provisions of the SRC.



Footnotes:

This article is reproduced with permission from Thomson Reuters Accelus. Copyright 2013 http://accelus.thomsonreuters.com/

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