The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has strengthened its collaboration with other government agencies to improve the quality of the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) data, a move expected to give policymakers, investors, and businesses a clearer picture of where foreign capital is flowing and how it contributes to the Philippine economy.
The initiative comes through a new memorandum of agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), allowing the three agencies to share corporate-level information to improve the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of the country’s official FDI statistics.
The BSP said more comprehensive investment data will help address long-standing gaps between information reported by banks and data collected directly from enterprises, giving policymakers a stronger basis for economic planning and investment policy.
Agencies work to close gaps in investment data
BSP Deputy Governor Zeno Ronald R. Abenoja (center), SEC Chairperson Francisco Ed. Lim (left), and PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis S. Mapa sign an agreement to strengthen foreign direct investment data sharing.
Signed on July 20, the agreement expands the government’s ability to identify foreign-invested enterprises by providing access to relevant corporate records, including information that may not be captured through traditional reporting channels.
“Comprehensive and reliable data are essential to sound economic policymaking,” BSP Deputy Governor Zeno Ronald R. Abenoja said.
“Through this partnership, the BSP, SEC, and PSA are strengthening the quality of FDI statistics, enabling us to better understand where foreign investments come from, where they go, and how they contribute to the Philippine economy.”
Under the agreement, the BSP will continue compiling the country’s official FDI statistics using corporate information shared by the SEC, while the PSA will serve as the central repository of FDI-related data.
The agencies said the framework includes secure digital data-sharing protocols and safeguards to ensure compliance with data privacy, security, and governance requirements.
Foreign direct investment refers to long-term investments made by overseas investors in Philippine enterprises, including equity investments, reinvested earnings, and intercompany loans.
According to the BSP, more reliable FDI statistics will provide policymakers, investors, researchers, and other stakeholders with better information for economic analysis and decision-making.
BSP also expands anti-scam coordination
From left to right: DOJ Assistant Secretary Michelle Anne S. Lapuz, DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix L. Ty, BSP General Counsel Roberto L. Figueroa, and Consumer Account Protection Office Director Atty. Alain Bert G. Regis
Alongside its efforts to strengthen economic data, the BSP also signed a separate Information-Sharing Agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) aimed at accelerating investigations into financial account scams under the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA).
Representing BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr., BSP General Counsel Roberto L. Figueroa signed the agreement with DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix L. Ty on July 22 at the BSP head office in Manila.
The agreement establishes procedures allowing the DOJ to request financial account information from the BSP’s Consumer Account Protection Office while ensuring that shared data is used only for authorized purposes and handled in accordance with existing privacy and security laws.
“Stronger institutional collaboration enhances our collective ability to identify organized actors who exploit the financial system, disrupt their operations, and hold them accountable under the law,” Figueroa said.
BSP Deputy Governor Elmore O. Capule, adviser to the AFASA Technical Working Group, said the agreement underscores the government’s coordinated response to financial fraud.
“It sends a very strong message that the government is fighting as one to protect the Filipino public,” Capule said.
The BSP said the arrangement is expected to help authorities trace suspicious financial transactions more quickly, enabling faster investigations and helping prevent further losses from online scams.
The DOJ agreement follows similar information-sharing partnerships the central bank signed earlier this year with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), and the SEC.
Data and enforcement seen as complementary priorities
Taken together, the two agreements highlight the BSP’s broader strategy of strengthening institutional coordination — improving the quality of economic data that informs public policy while enhancing the government’s ability to combat financial crimes.
While one initiative focuses on giving policymakers and investors a clearer understanding of foreign investment flows, the other aims to speed up enforcement against financial scams, reflecting the central bank’s expanding role in promoting both economic transparency and public confidence in the financial system.
