The Monetary Board (MB) at Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), a Philippines central bank, has approved the new Philippine Credit Card Industry Regulation Law intended to ensure safe, efficient and fair business conduct.
The law comes with Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) that are set to allow new ‘players’, other than banks, their affiliates and subsidiaries, into the credit card market.
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The entry of new organisations is expected to result in transparent and competitive interest rates, innovative products and enhanced services.
In addition, the new IRR will tackle customer concerns associated with credit cards, including transparency of charges and fees, unfair collection practices, immediate payments posting, consumer data confidentiality, and fast resolution of complaints and disputed transactions.
The rules require all credit card issuers to completely disclose their computing approach for finance charges and other credit card-related fees, along with provision of prior notification in case of any changes to the said charges.
Furthermore, the law wants issuers to ensure correct customer identification and proper credit underwriting to promote responsible credit use and avoid over-indebtedness, while cardholders must manage their credit, protect transaction integrity and instantly report card loss.
The IRR also considers a phased implementation of certain provisions for the required adjustments in the systems and processes of current issuers.
