Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it has delisted 250 pawnshops, foreign exchange dealers and remittance agents as of May 31.
Bangko Sentral said in a circular posted on its Web site the delisting of these offices was based on notices of voluntary closures and relevant information gathered from the conduct of the regulator’s oversight functions from April 1 to May 31.
It said of the 250 delisted firms, 47 were pawnshops, 68 pawnshops with corollary, five foreign exchange dealers/money changers, 21 remittance agents and 109 firms operating as foreign exchange dealer/money changer/remittance agents.
Among those delisted was Philrem Service Corp., believed to be one of the conduits of the recent $81-million money laundering scam. The Makati-based firm was delisted on May 31, 2016.
Bangko Sentral earlier said it cancelled the certificate of registration of Philrem for violation of rules governing non-bank financial institutions.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue filed a P35.6-million tax evasion case against Philrem in April, after investigation showed the remittance company was not paying taxes for a couple of years.
Bangko Sentral said despite the closure of these non-bank financial institutions, it approved the application for registration of 292 new pawnshops, foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents.
Of these approvals, 117 were pawnshops, six foreign exchange dealers/money changers, 92 remittance agents and 77 firms operating as foreign exchange dealer/money changer/remittance agent.
Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in April that Bangko Sentral was planning to issue upgraded regulations on covered institutions, including pawnshops, to strengthen the financial system in the wake of the $81-million money laundering scam that rocked the domestic banking industry in February.
Espenilla said one of the upcoming circulars would be the comprehensive regulations updating the rules on pawnshops.
“A significant chunk of pawnshop business is actually being derived from remittance activity and other kinds of cross-sold activities. You may not realize it but pawnshops today are the number one distributors of micro insurance more than banks, competing the traditional insurance agents. What can pawnshops do today? They do remittances, in addition of course to traditional loans, they do insurance, some even do money changing. So it’s a much more complicated business,” Espenilla said.
