Philippines tightens AML controls on casino travel-related transactions

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued new guidance to Supervised Financial Institutions, including banks, e-money issuers, exchange houses, and payment service providers, on how to handle customers linked to casino travel arrangements. For PSPs and other high-risk payment players, the point is simple: casino-adjacent flows now come with a clearer AML/CFT (anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing) playbook, and the BSP wants institutions to treat them that way.

1. The BSP published the guidance on Tuesday under the title “Risk Management Practices for Customers Engaged in Casino Gaming Travel Operations.” The document is aimed at keeping financial institutions from becoming channels for money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, and other illicit activity.
2. The regulator says it has identified several red flags tied to these transactions in the Philippines. Those include unusual cash movements, complex ownership structures in corporate customers, and layered transactions, meaning activity split into multiple operations to obscure the source or destination of funds.
3. BSP Deputy Governor Lyn I. Javier said transactions linked to casino gaming travel can create elevated money laundering risk. According to Javier, the central bank identified best practices and warning signs that non-bank financial institutions should know so they can act as reliable partners in reducing crime and protecting the integrity of the financial system.
4. The guidance sets out five areas where institutions should tighten controls: oversight by the board and senior management, internal AML/CFT programs, customer acceptance and identification before a business relationship starts, ongoing transaction monitoring and suspicious transaction reporting, and periodic self-assessment plus staff training.
5. The BSP also points to practices it says some institutions in the Philippines already use and should maintain. These include enhanced due diligence for high-risk customers, automated transaction monitoring systems, analysis of links between different customers to spot suspicious patterns, independent verification with regulatory agencies, and active participation in information-sharing initiatives among sector participants.