Bartolome hits delay in Urban Bank reopening

Urban Bank chairman Archit Bartolome lambasted yesterday government’s delayed action in approving the acquisition of Urban Bank by the Bank of Commerce, saying it was part of a political vendetta.

Bartolome stressed that the closure of Urban Bank, for six months now, has unnecessarily imposed burdens on depositors and investors.
While he expressed confidence in being cleared by the Department of Justice in cases filed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Monetary Board, and in eventual findings that government banking regulators had abused their authority in ordering the bank’s closure, Bartolome accused BSP Gov. Rafael Buenaventura of holding depositors hostage to government’s political goals.

"Everything is accounted for," Bartolome stressed. "There is no missing asset, no missing liability, no missing loan, no missing deposit or investment, no fictitious loans, no fake titles."

Both the bank the Urbancorp Investments (UII) are solvent, he added, noting that the Bank of Commerce had expressed a firm commitment "to acquire UBI and UII lock, stock and barrel," after a due diligence study.

Bartolome also slammed government spokesmen for implying that he had taken out personal funds from the bank in the days before it declared a bank holiday that led to the disputed closure order.

"The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., the receiver of Urban Bank, and Corazon de la Paz of Price Waterhouse, the receiver of Urbancorp Investments have full control of and possession of all the records and books for more than six months now," he pointed out.

"They have not found any withdrawal made by my immediate family and I before the bank holiday," he stressed.

Bartolome said records with PDIC and Price Waterhouse show that his wife had a maturing investment and his daughter, a dollar time deposit, which were rolled over and locked in together with other investments of his immediate family.

"The approximate total deposits and investments of my immediate family with Urban and Urbancorp amounted to P300 million," the bank chairman noted.

At the same time, Bartolome emphasized that he was not involved in the day to day operations of the bank and its investment arm, as he had resigned as chief executive officer as early as 1992, when he was appointed president of the Bases Conversion Development Corp.