Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) recently with executives from Globe Telecom Inc. (Globe) so they can work together against online fraud.
In a press release, RCBC said they have decided to put up a “direct and round-the-clock communication channel with Globe” so any fraudulent activities “can easily be reported for immediate investigation and blocking.”
The same press release further stated that this communication channel allows both parties to fight the rising prevalence and complexity of financial crimes, identity theft, SMS spam, phishing, and similar types of cyber fraud.
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Preventing the “Bangladesh Bank cyber-heist” from happening again
RCBC continues to struggle with its connection to the “Bangladesh Bank cyber-heist,” a cross-border electronic theft that occurred in 2016, which garnered wide media attention after hackers were able to withdraw $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s deposits at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The stolen funds eventually made their way to the Philippines through five separate accounts at RCBC, where a large portion got removed and disappeared into the nation’s casino industry. Most of the money transferred went to personal accounts held by single individuals and not to companies or corporations.
As of 2018, only about US$18 million of the US$81 million transferred to the Philippines have been recovered. The remaining purloined money remains traceless.
After reviewing the matter, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) fined RCBC P1 billion in mid-2016, the highest charge ever levied against a Philippine financial firm.
Helping raise awareness about cybersecurity
“Our relationship [with Globe] is in line with our advocacy to raise awareness of cybersecurity among the general public and is a significant step toward improving our capacities for fraud detection and prevention as well as client protection. Direct coordination will help us fight fraud more effectively,” said Carlos Tengkiat, Chief Information Security Officer of RCBC, in a press statement.
“We look forward to cooperating to mitigate other cybersecurity threats and maintain the security of our accounts,” he added.
For her part, Irish Salandanan-Almeida, Chief Privacy Officer at Globe Group, said, “Through our partnership with RCBC, we will be better equipped to prevent spam and frauds from happening and improve our capacity to look into and address such situations.”
“Our commitment to combating fraud remains strong, and we will continue to work with other institutions and stakeholders to protect our customers from fraudulent activities,” she added.
Through the partnership, Globe and RCBC will become better equipped to respond to financial fraud and scam occurrences. They will now also be able to create better measures to prevent cyber fraud incidents from happening and possibly escalating again.
A more collaborative approach to information and intelligence sharing
According to Globe, the Memorandum of Understanding they have signed with RCBC aims to promote a more integrated and collaborative approach to information and intelligence sharing and incident reporting.
Globe reported that it had blocked 85 million bank-related spam and SMS-based fraud messages between January 2022 and January 2023.
The telecommunications company also stated that this is a portion of the record-breaking 3 billion spam and scam e-mails that they were able to filter out within the same time frame.