THE Makati Business Club (MBC) on Monday called for the lifting of bank secrecy laws to allow the government to scrutinize both public and private persons in aid of the fight against corrupt and illegal practices.

In a statement, the MBC said it is backing Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III in his call to lift bank secrecy and strengthen anti-money laundering laws. As such, it asked Congress to remove secrecy for public and private persons that the Philippines may comply with standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) network.

“Failure to comply by October 2020 will result in the country being subjected to restrictions and additional costs that will hit legitimate transactions, including the remittances of our [overseas Filipino] workers,” the MBC said on Monday.

State regulators and lawmakers are moving to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act to fix the deficiencies of the law. Failure to amend the weak areas of the Amla could put the Philippines in the

gray list jurisdiction and, worse, even face blacklisting by the FATF.

The FATF, the intergovernmental money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, identifies jurisdictions with deficiencies in their laws and strategies.