MANILA - Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Wednesday its chatbot, called BOB is now live to assist consumers.

The chatbot was created to help on concerns raised to the central bank against supervised financial institutions, the BSP said in a statement. It has an automated capability to handle complaints, it said.

"Called “BOB” (BSP Online Buddy), the chatbot has been pilot tested and is now fully deployed to serve Filipino financial consumers," the BSP said.

By using artificial intelligence and natural language processing, BOB can respond in Tagalog, English or Taglish, the BSP said.

BOB can respond to queries sent via webchat at the official BSP website, SMS or Facebook Messenger, the central bank said.

“Aside from enhancing BSP’s quality of service, BOB empowers financial consumers by giving them a more accessible channel for raising complaints. This is in line with BSP’s commitment to pursue innovations in financial services for the benefit of Filipinos,” BSP Gov. Benjamin E. Diokno said.

Consumers are encouraged to use the technology to efficiently cascade their complaints.

Financial consumers are encouraged to use and take advantage of the technology in order to have accessible, continuous, timely and efficient platform for escalating their complaints against BSFIs. BOB may be accessed through the following:

• Meet 'BOB': BSP tests chatbot to assist in consumer complaints