THE POLICY-SETTING Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has amended its foreign exchange (FX) regulations make permanent most of the operational relief measures for FX transactions adopted during the coronavirus pandemic.
BSP Circular No. 1171, signed by BSP Deputy Governor Eduardo G. Bobier as officer-in-charge on March 29, amends the provisions of the Manual of Regulations on Foreign Exchange Transactions.
“The amendments are in line with the BSP’s thrust to further streamline procedures and documentary requirements for FX transactions,” the central bank said in a statement late on Monday.
The major amendments include the issuance of International Operations Department (IOD) documents in electronic form and allowing the digital submission of BSP-IOD issued documents to authorized agent banks (AABs)/AAB subsidiary or affiliate forex corporations (AAB forex corps) and to the central bank.
“For BSP-issued documents in electronic form, AABs/AAB forex corps shall verify with the BSP, through the IOD, the authenticity of said documents submitted by the client prior to FX sale/deposit of funds to a peso deposit account of non-resident, as applicable,” the circular read.
“The required verification with the BSP, through the IOD, shall apply to initial submission by the client to the Head Office or each branch of AAB/AAB Forex Corp. of BSP-issued document in electronic form covering the specific underlying transaction/s, as applicable,” it said.
The BSP also waived the processing fee for non-compliance within the prescriptive period for submission to BSP-IOD of registrations or requests for various FX transactions.
The Monetary Board also lifted the notarization requirement for some supporting documents on trade and non-trade current account transactions as well as foreign investments.
The central bank said electronic documents issued by the BSP-IOD starting March 27, 2020 will remain valid even after the period covered by BSP Circular No. 1080.
The BSP will no longer issue original hardcopies to replace documents.
Meanwhile, the waiver of penalties for delays in the submission of reports to the BSP-IOD will remain in effect until June 30, unless extended by the central bank. — Keisha B. Ta-asan