The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday it filed with the Department of Justice criminal cases against four lending firms for allegedly operating unregistered online lending platforms.
It identified the firms as Suncash Lending Investors Corp., UCash Lending Investors Corp., Suncredit.ph Finance Corp. and ECredit Finance Inc.
The corporate regulator said these firms failed to disclose their online lending applications in violation of Republic Act No. 9474, or the Lending Company Regulation Act and Republic Act No. 8556, or the Financing Company Act.
The SEC’s Enforcement and Investor Protection Department, together with the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, Eastern District Anti-Cybercrime Team, Manila Police District and the Special Weapons and Tactics Philippines previously implemented a warrant to search, seize, and examine computer against Suncash as part of the SECs crackdown against unregistered lenders.
The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 147 issued the search warrant against Suncash upon several complaints received by the PNP-ACG and the SEC against the company.
The SEC said during the implementation of the search warrant, authorities discovered that other lending companies including Ucash, Suncredit and Ecredit had been operating alongside Suncash in its headquarters in Sampaloc, Manila.
The joint operation resulted in the arrest of 83 individuals, identified as operators, managers, employees and agents of Suncash.
SEC Memorandum Circular 19 requires lending and financing companies to report all their existing OLPs to the SEC.