PH cybercrime body, JuanHand ink MOA on combat fintech lending cybercrime

They will develop a data and information sharing mechanism.

The Philippines’ Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and online lending platform JuanHand has inked a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to ramp up efforts against cybercrime and fraud in the fintech lending sphere.

Under the MOA, JuanHand and the CICC will develop a data and information sharing mechanism with the goal of combating cybercrime activities, according to a joint press release published on 29 October 2024.

The mechanism also aims to improve cyber capabilities, and accelerate digitalization initiatives in the fintech lending space.

JuanHand and CICC formally signed the MOA on 18 October at the National Cybercrime Hub in Taguig, Philippines.

This MOA is reportedly the first of its kind for the CICC, who shared plans to onboard more fintech partners in the future.

“There are a lot of victims who are being harassed by unscrupulous online platforms who are not even registered. And these are the concerns that we’d like to address,” said CICC executive director undersecretary Alexander Ramos during the MOA signing event.

“We would like to help them by leaving them to the registered platforms, that they shouldn’t fall victim to just any application offering financial services. Though it will be small loans, for example, PHP20,000 ($343), they end up paying PHP100,000 ($1,715). That’s too much. Too predatory,” Ramos said.

JuanHand’s President and CEO Coco Mauricio also elaborated on the need for a fair lending environment during the event.

“The last thing we want is to make the borrowing public or the underserved uncomfortable with online lending. Because if they’re uncomfortable, where would they go? Loan sharks, five-six? Those would expose them to deeper debt and worse harassment,” Mauricio said.

JuanHand offers microloans of up to 50,000 pesos. These loans are payable up to 9 months with competitive interest rates of less than 0.49% per day.