SEC cancels Surity Cash lending license
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has canceled the license of an online lending platform operator due to the alleged “disrespectful” debt collection its employees made via text messages as early as 2021.
In a statement on Monday, the corporate watchdog said Surity Cash Lending Investors Corp. had violated SEC Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 18, Series of 2019, which prohibits unfair debt collection practices.
Based on its Jan. 14 order, the SEC said it had received via email some 190 complaints about Surity Cash’s collection specialists who supposedly sent messages that were “disrespectful in tenor,” with some representatives supposedly threatening the family of complainants. Five of these were elevated into formal complaints, according to the SEC.
For its part, Surity Cash claimed that its staff had undergone training and that the messages did not come from its employees.
“The respondent (Surity Cash) stated that payment reminders and demands are made through system-generated messages under its name as a matter of procedure,” the SEC said in its order.
It also pointed out that the mobile numbers cited in the complaints were neither issued by Surity Cash nor registered under the company’s name, noting that collection specialists were not provided with company phones or SIM cards.
The SEC argued, however, that Surity Cash failed to submit evidence to support its claims and that its consumers still experienced “unfair debt collection practices from former collection agents.”
Violations
In 2021, the SEC Corporate Governance and Finance Department issued a show-cause letter to Surity Cash for failing to submit a sworn certification of compliance and explain why it should not be held liable for its violations.
By June 2023, the SEC issued a cease and desist order against Surity Cash “to prevent the respondent from committing unfair debt collection practices which, if unrestrained, will cause grave or irreparable injury or prejudice to financial consumers.”
The SEC Financing and Lending Companies Department likewise revoked the company’s certificate of authority to operate as a lending company, as well as its primary registration.
Individual also issued CDO
At the same time, the SEC issued a cease and desist order (CDO) against Fernando Joquico Santos for operating a lending business without registering with the commission.
In a Feb. 18 order, the SEC en banc directed Santos and his business operators, promoters, representatives, agents and “all persons acting on his behalf” to stop facilitating lending transactions until they secure the regulator’s approval.
According to the SEC, the Office of the City Prosecutor of San Juan City requested the agency to verify the legitimacy of Santos’ business. Santos reportedly filed “several cases” against his clients for issuing bounced checks as loan payments.
The SEC noted that Santos had allegedly been offering loans worth as much as P600,000 since 2018.
