Defining the collective role of Philippine banks in combating the financing of terrorism

• Main Author: Basilgo, Gembeth G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: Terrorism—Philippines—Finance; Money laundering—Philippines; Banks and banking—Philippines; Defense and Security Studies; Political Science
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6889
• Institution: De La Salle University

Terrorist financing is a fact in the modern world. It is commonly accepted that terror groups abuse the existence of banks to fund. Their nefarious activities. How then do the countries address this issue with the view of curtailing the activities of these terror groups? In the Philippines, there are two major laws which try to address the growing concern of terrorist financing – the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 and the Human Security Act of 2007. Given these pieces of legislation, what is now the role of Philippine banks in combatting the financing of terrorism? While banks have been traditionally viewed far limited to doing business by accepting deposits, there is a need for paradigm shift. This shift is due to the emerging trends of abuse in using the banks as a means by which terror groups fund their activities. Banks therefore, now exist not as mere repositories of deposits but are now given the role as the bastions to safeguard the stability of the whole economy. They do this by providing information that would ultimately result in cutting the ties between terrorist groups which exist in the country and donors seeking to find these groups.