Money
Banks Can Now Freeze Suspicious Money Transfers Under New BSP Rule
This makes it easier to stop stolen money from being moved.
Published on Jun 4, 2025
(SPOT.ph) If you’ve ever fallen
victim to a hack or scam, you’ll know how helpless it makes you feel to watch your
hard-earned money disappear with no way to get it back—but things are about to change. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) just rolled out new rules that could give
your bank the power to act fast when something suspicious is going on with your
account.
Under BSP Circular No. 1215 signed last May 30,
banks and other financial institutions supervised by the BSP can now temporarily
freeze funds they believe are connected to a scam, fraud, or unauthorized
access. This freeze can last for up to 30 days: five days at first, with a possible 25-day extension. That pause gives time for a proper investigation to determine where
the money came from and whether it should be returned to the original sender.
Anything longer than that would need a court order.
How does the bank freeze work?
Let’s say someone hacks into your bank account or tricks you into sending money through a scam. The freezing of funds is triggered
in three main ways:
From there, the involved banks start a coordinated verification process—essentially, a joint investigation
where they track the transaction chain, talk to account owners, and determine whether the transaction was legitimate or not. That said, banks are also allowed to share information with each other during investigations, even if it's typically protected by data privacy laws, but only for this specific purpose.
Just because banks have this new power doesn’t mean they can freeze your money at any time. They’re only allowed to do it if there’s reasonable suspicion, like if the transaction is unusually large for your account, doesn’t match your usual activity, or comes from an unknown or illegal source. That said, this regulation does not apply to erroneous transfers (i.e., when you accidentally send money to the wrong account).
It is also not applicable to credit card transactions unless the credit card was used to send money through a fund transfer service.
Since this rule is mandatory for
all BSP-regulated banks, you can expect them to roll it out
soon—if they haven’t already started. They’ve got up to a year to fully adopt
the system, but the BSP wants them to start as soon as
possible.
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What if my transfer gets frozen?
You’re not completely powerless if your account ends up on the receiving end of that freeze.
You can challenge it and show proof—like receipts, affidavits, or even chat logs—to explain why the transaction is legit. If everything checks out, the bank can release your money even before the 30-day window is over.
Micah believes that writing is always political. Beyond the byline, you’ll find her bruising herself in a pole studio or napping with her beagle. Reach her at micah@spot.ph.
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