Pawnshops told: know your clients
By Lee C. Chipongian
Published: May 19, 2013
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued a memorandum directing
pawnshops to strictly comply with the rules on the "Know Your Pawner"
policy – their version of the banks' KYC ("Know Your Customer").
The memo, signed by BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr., said
pawnshops should follow the "Know Your Pawner" policy by making sure the
pawner transacting business with them are the true owners of items being
pawned by requiring valid identification documents.
"It has come to our attention that there are pawnshops which are not
adhering to existing regulations on acceptance of pawn items and the
'Know Your Pawner' policy, including the required presentation by
pawners of their valid ID," said Espenilla.
With the new memo, Espenilla reminds all pawnshops to strictly adhere to
BSP rules especially in identifying their customers and to "ascertain
whether the pawner is the true owner of the article/item offers as
pawn". They do this eliminating any grounds for suspicion that the
pawned article/item did not come by through robbery or theft.
The BSP has started to issue metal plates or the "BSP Registration
Plates" to pawnshops last November to help the public quickly identify
registered entities. The metal plates, which will be valid for five
years, will have security features and codes that would be very hard to
fake.
The central bank said the display of the metal registration plates in
the premises of pawnshops will assure customers that they are
transacting with legitimate entities.
In 2009, the BSP started improvements in its supervision of pawnshops by
focusing more on the top brass of the sector. The revisions effectively
updated the 36-year-old policy guidelines on pawnshops.
The central bank has also started efforts to better capture the whole
pawnshop business. At least 30-40 percent of the sector remains outside
of the BSP monitoring system. This is about 4,000 to 6,000 more
pawnshops, which would bring the total to at least 20,000.
Pawnshops engage in the business of lending money on personal property
delivered as security for loans. Millions of Filipinos, who do not have
access to banks, transact their financial business with non-bank
channels such as pawnshops.
As of the end of 2012, the BSP is supervising 17,335 pawnshops.
Pawnshops were legalized in 1973 to provide an additional source of
credit especially for small borrowers left unserved by the banking and
other financial institutions in the country.
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CARLOS ANI - Consultant
Chairman of the Board - SEEDFINANCE Corporation
Mailing address: PO Box 90 UPLB Los Banos Laguna, Philippines 4031
Emails: carlosani@gmail.com , carlosani@seedfinance.net
Landline Phone: +63495010127 (PLDT)
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My Websites:
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http://phildevfinance.blogspot.com
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