January 7, 2020Please be advised that EFFECTIVE MARCH 9, 2020, amendments of certain Cooling-Off Provisions shall be implemented pursuant to BSP Circular No. 1048 “BSP Regulations on Financial Consumer Protection x x x and Amendments to the Manual of Regulations for Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions”. New Provisions: 1) Consumers with an aggregate investment size of Php500,000 and above are excluded from invoking the cooling-off period. 2) Securities “traded” or “to be traded” are exempt. Based on the above provisions, all existing Treasury Products shall not apply the cooling-off provisions. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 1. What is “cooling-off”? A: Cooling-off period is the right given to a consumer, who is a natural person, to cancel the agreement for a particular financial instrument availed. 2. How is the aggregate investment size determined? A: The aggregate investment size pertains to the total outstanding investment of the client covered by the cooling-off provision including the amount of placement that would make the total placements reach the Php500,000 threshold. Example: Time Deposit Placement Jan. 5 – 1st placement of 100,000 – covered by the cooling-off Jan. 30 – 2nd placement of 300,000 – still covered by cooling off Feb. 15 – 3rd placement of 200,000 – no longer covered by cooling off since aggregate investments reached the Php500,000 threshold 3. Why are securities “traded” or “to be traded” exempt from cooling-off? A: Such type of instruments provides investors in such instruments with an easy exit and liquidity mechanism at market-determined prices. Hence it is not necessary for any investor who changes his/her mind about his/her investment to go back to the underwriter/broker during the cooling-off period to cancel his/her purchase. For further inquiries or clarifications, please call or visit your branch of account or any Bank of Commerce branch near you. Click here to view the complete list of our branches.