THE Monetary Board, the policy-making body of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, approved the regulations implementing the Philippine Credit Card Industry Regulation Law that will require all issuers to fully disclose how they compute finance charges and other fees related to credit card use.
The board in a statement Friday said the law aimed to make consumer credit readily available under conditions of safe, sound, efficient, and fair business conduct aligned with global best practices.
“The rules require all credit card issuers to fully disclose, in an understandable way, the manner of computing finance charges and other fees related to credit card use as well as provide ample notification prior to effecting any changes in the said charges,” the board said.
The disclosures should be in application forms, the terms and conditions of credit card contracts and billing statements. The rules also clarified that the finance charges must be computed based on the unpaid amount of the outstanding balance as of statement cut-off date and should not include current and deferred charges.