{"id":777039439,"date":"2026-03-20T08:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777039439"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:18:09","slug":"philippine-senator-introduces-bill-to-tighten-aml-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senator-introduces-bill-to-tighten-aml-regulation","title":{"rendered":"Philippine senator introduces bill to tighten AML regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cCovered persons\u201d would be expanded to explicitly include online gambling operators and virtual asset service providers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Joel Villanueva<\/strong> has filed Senate Bill No. 1983, seeking to amend Republic Act No. 9160, or the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA)<\/strong>. He said his proposal would address emerging financial crimes linked to digital platforms, including online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key provision is the expansion of \u201ccovered persons\u201d under the AMLA to explicitly include online gambling operators and virtual asset service providers. This would bring online gaming platforms within the scope of anti-money laundering compliance, subjecting them to stricter due diligence, reporting requirements and regulatory oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure also seeks to grant stronger powers to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC)<\/strong>, enabling it to issue transaction suspension orders, administrative freeze orders and subpoenas more efficiently during investigations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villanueva said the current legal framework must evolve to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated financial crimes. \u201cWe need a tougher law to catch up with the criminals<\/strong> trying to cover their illicit financial tracks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill would expand the list of predicate offences for money laundering to include cybercrime and other emerging threats<\/strong> while introducing clearer thresholds for cash transactions subject to review and strengthening administrative sanctions for non-compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed reforms are aligned with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)<\/strong>, Villanueva said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Philippine senator urges tougher legislative action on illegal online betting<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCovered persons\u201d would be expanded to explicitly include online gambling operators and virtual asset service providers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777039450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippines is moving to amend its Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) through Senate Bill No. 1983, explicitly expanding \"covered persons\" to include online gambling operators and virtual asset service providers (VASPs). This legislative action, aligned with FATF recommendations, will subject these entities to enhanced due diligence, reporting requirements, and regulatory oversight by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which will also gain stronger enforcement powers.","focusai_entities":"Joel Villanueva, Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), Financial Action Task Force (FATF)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR & NGR?","query":"What is the projected impact of these enhanced AML compliance costs and regulatory oversight on the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) for licensed online gambling operators in the Philippines?"},{"label":"AMLC Enforcement Strategy?","query":"How will the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) operationalize its newly granted powers for transaction suspension and administrative freeze orders, and what are the expected timelines for enforcement actions against non-compliant entities?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[24628,154,158,16333],"tags":[24993,225,24804],"class_list":["post-777039439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-anti-money-laundering","tag-legislation","tag-the-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777039439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777039439"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777039439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777039467,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777039439\/revisions\/777039467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777039450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777039439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777039439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777039439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}