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Philippine Fintech alliance to adopt TechnoEthics

Philippine regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) welcome the move of an organisation of Fintech and digital firms to institutionalise an industry-wide code of ethics and adopt a code of conduct.

According to a recent report, the regulators have committed to work closely with the private sector as well as other government agencies like the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to promote the safety and security of consumers.

The Framework

TechnoEthics is a framework on the ethical utilisation of emerging technologies, which will protect the consumers against the misuse and abuse of innovations.

Moreover, it is an adoption of common principles to guide players about new advances in technological development and application to benefit society.

The initiative involves setting standards for the industry to promote transparency and protect customers from any possible malpractices and other unethical actions of FinTech players.

Under this framework, FinTech players would not be allowed to use customer data with the objective of disbursing more loans.

Additionally, the practice of intimidation by FinTech players in order to collect from borrowers is likewise prohibited.

Alliance members providing online lending would be required to fully disclose all costs of customers including interest rates, processing fees and fines for late payment.

Background of the Initiative

The move of the Alliance to adopt an initiative that will protect consumers from unscrupulous and abusive online lenders stemmed from the recommendation of the NPC to file criminal charges against officials of online lenders for data privacy violations.

The Alliance will create a code of ethics and adopt a code of conduct for responsible lending because the online lenders violated the Data Privacy Act for their business practice of shaming borrowers by targeting their privacy in order to collect payments.

Complaints received by the Commission included the following:

  1. Online lending firms used the contact list of borrowers without consent or authority
  2. Disclosure of unwarranted or false information to other persons
  3. Use of personal information for harassment
  4. Unduly intrusive personal data processing

In addition, the Alliance’s initiative also comes as the SEC issued a cease and desist order against online lending applications operated by unlicensed persons and entities, amid complaints of invasion of privacy and harassment.

SEC decided to conduct investigations on lending activities of the online apps as they received several complaints. These are:

  1. High interest rates
  2. Unreasonable terms and conditions
  3. Misrepresentations as to non-collection of charges and fees
  4. Violation of right to privacy
  5. Abusive practices
  6. Accessing the personal information of borrower to contact a borrower’s relatives, friends and acquaintances
  7. Threatening public shaming and harassment

The industry-wide code of ethics and code of conduct should reportedly help steer the financial technology industry toward higher standards of behaviour and away from attempts to exploit it for money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and invasion of privacy.

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Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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