The Securities and Exchange Commission must establish and maintain an online registry portal of all registered investment securities in the country as ‘first line of defense’ against financial frauds in the light of the repetitious investment scams reported in the country.
Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda seeks to install such anti-scam mechanism with the House Bill 9216 he has filed Congress titled “Scam Finder Act,” which aims to “protect people against investment scams; assist them in navigating better the financial landscape and avoid its pitfalls; learn how to save and spend resources in a judicious manner; know when and where to invest, when to contract debt and how to manage it in order to avoid financial troubles.”
Salceda noted that cases of financial scams had been hogging the headlines and that hundreds of people fell prey to investment frauds year after year, even if the schemes had already been widely publicized and various government agencies had repeatedly issued public warnings against them.