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Thursday, March 28, 2024

BPI blunder

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Listeners who were tuned in to the S.R.O. (Suhestiyon, Reaksiyon, Opinyon) radio program of Alvin Elchico and Doris Bigornia over DZMM Teleradyo last Monday experienced GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)-like symptoms when they heard the duo announce that the Bank of the Philippine Islands is requiring all its account holders to update their information—or else they would not be able to withdraw through automated Teller Machines (ATMs), transact online or do mobile banking.

“You will not be able to access your account via any of BPI’s 24/7 electronic channels (i.e. ATM, Online and Mobile) until you have submitted your CIS (Customer Information Sheet) and ID,” the BPI advisory went. Aside from the CIS, account holders also have to fill out the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) form (available from the bank’s website), then bring the original document plus a photocopy of one valid—and take note—recent, ID with photo.

Doris Bigornia, who has endeared herself to viewers and listeners for her “Mutya ng Masa” persona, was spewing invisible fire from her nostrils because there was “no ample time” for the clients to comply with the requirement since the notice was posted online last Friday (August 26) and the deadline given was today (August 31). And since Monday (August 29) was a holiday, that means all the bank’s clients from all over the country only had two days to comply with the requirement.

Aside from the very short notice, people were also confused about the need to submit an accomplished FATCA form because as far as people know, that only pertains to US citizens living abroad who have to report their foreign accounts for taxation and record purposes. Even the FATCA—whose primary intention is to prevent Americans from cheating on their taxes—is under controversy because many feel it is a form of unfair double taxation. Our buddies tell us that this controversial tax law is also one of the reasons why many Americans have since renounced their citizenship, preferring more tax friendly countries. (Records from the US treasury show that in 2015 alone, 4,729 individuals gave up their US citizenship—an increase of 20 percent from the previous year. The number of renunciations has been steadily increasing ever since the FATCA came into effect in 2012.)

But we digress. Aside from the lack of ample time, people were also wondering how they can produce valid IDs bearing their photo that are also recent. As far as we know, valid IDs that show a person’s mug include driver’s licenses, passports, Social Security System IDs, Voter’s ID and a company ID. So how recent is “recent”? Passports are valid for five years, driver’s licenses are renewable every three years (besides which, the LTO is still hard pressed to issue plastic IDs and are just giving paper registration certificates) and unless you just got hired, chances are, the photo in your ID(s) may not even look like you when you go to BPI to update your account information. And what if the account holder is on an extended vacation outside the country? 

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Worse, those who wanted to check out the news could not access bpiexpressonline.com (in fact, we still could not access the official website up to the time of writing). Thankfully, during the interview of Doris and Alvin with an official from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, they suddenly announced that BPI has moved the deadline from August 31 to September 30. BPI has since apologized for causing “inconvenience” to clients and also clarified that the requirement to update one’s account only applies to certain clients who have since received private communication from the bank.

What a bummer. BPI, please, next time you have an announcement, make sure it will not cause confusion and undue stress.  

For comments, reactions, photos, stories and related concerns, readers may email to happyhourtoday2012@yahoo.com. You may also visit and like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/happyhourmanilastandard. Cheers!

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