According to a recent annual report by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), consumer complaints have increased by nearly 73% in 2025, compared to a year prior. This came with additional consumer awareness of accessible complaint channels, and greater adoption of digital banking.
BSP also pointed to increased media attention surrounding two laws aimed at protecting consumers: the Financial Consumer Protection Act (FCPA) and the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA).
Consumer Protection Frameworks: FCPA and AFASA
The Financial Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 2022 to serve as a key pillar of promoting and enforcing security for consumers.
Among which, its aims, cited from the bill are as follows: (a) Right to equitable and fair treatment; (b) Right to disclosure and transparency of financial products and services; (c) Right to protection of consumer assets against fraud and misuse; (d) Right to data privacy and protection; and (e) Right to timely handling and redress of complaints.
FCPA serves a multi-prong purpose of prevention and addressing security breaches, concerns, and exposure that consumers may face. This follows marketing practices and operational flows—and through this, it stands beyond a reactionary act; rather, it encourages a spirit of proactivity from financial institutions.
Media scrutiny and recognition of these pillars have made their way into public consciousness.
As more people are made aware—at least in part—of these measures, they begin to question marketing tactics, fraud, complaint channels, and data privacy, among others. It is important that the banking population knows these rules, for the sake of increasing the demand for transparency from institutions.
They vote with their wallets and their assets. As is the case for all institutions, banking is built upon trust: for it is the hard-earned money of the Filipino that is being entrusted with.
A known breach in a bank’s security protocol, for example, leads to a reputational blow that lowers consumer confidence. And confidence is key. It is made apparent in many facets of the financial ecosystem; from loan ratings given by agencies, to trust scores given by the people, confidence has always been a common given towards assessing the stability—and thus, the attractiveness—of engaging with an institution.
The same spirit goes with the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act. Enacted in 2025, it focuses more on digital financial institutions.
Where the FCPA is broader and far-reaching, AFASA scrutinizes the inherent nature of said institutions. GCash, Maya, and other institutions operate differently from traditional institutions. They are more automated; their complaint channels are more accessible.
Yet, they also face a different set of exposures: for example, a digital banking institution relies on web-based or app-based infrastructures. This means an increased risk of hacking, and of data-privacy violations.
Complaints: Band Aid versus Cure
To consider something net positive, one must consider the effects of complaints versus the actions taken to address these complaints. According to BSP statistics, complaints increased by 73% compared to 2024.
There are no measurable goal posts that give a definite answer to negative effects—that is, if qualitative and quantitative losses, exposures, and so on, have increased by the same figure. What is known is that complaints have, in part, increased because of the accessibility of channels afforded by recent innovations. There are now digital channels for complaints, as compared to the physical (and often times slow) systems of old.
Although there is not a benchmark for negative effects, nor a definite correlation between complaints and actual harm, complaints are a net positive.
Complaints bring upon a culture of speaking up about harm, big and small, and in turn, truly encourages institutions to give attention. By logic, this enables improvement by listening to the common consumer, not just the corrective action of the BSP.
Complaints therefore serve two purposes: a consumer-facing improvement, and a deeper improvement of the internal processes that eventually reach the consumer.
Say, if a customer receives a scam text, the institution usually rolls out warnings against these texts. But to be truly effective, the institutions must aim to prevent these scams in the first place. This is the thesis of consumer-facing fixes versus systematic improvement. There is a question of the lengths that an institution goes towards preventing harm to the customer—a band aid solution, or an actual cure?
This is the question consumers must ask. Are the institutions proactive enough to solve the underlying problems, or do they merely offer temporary solutions?
If one keeps receiving scam text messages, or keeps getting their accounts hacked, then what are the banks doing to solve these issues? That should be the measure of how much of a net positive complaints bring.
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We provide a comprehensive complaint and inquiry system that enables you to voice your concerns; and our system is designed to address these in a timely, proactive manner.
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