A short-lived bank run

Did you know 1: Three International School Manila seniors, including the grandson of a banker, have been caught cheating. It seems they hacked into the computer of a teacher and downloaded the contents of a scheduled test.

Now, the $64 question is not whether ISM will allow them to walk up the stage in early June but whether ISM will disseminate that information to all schools, including the American universities which have already accepted the three seniors for the school year that starts in September.

* * *

Did you know 2: The recent two-day bank run of a large commercial bank was quickly cauterized after a couple of foreign banks, which do a lot of business with the local bank, quietly agreed to support it at the interbank level, with the corresponding interest, of course.

The local bank did not turn to the Bangko Sentral for an emergency loan for two reasons. One was sheer pride. The other was, well, everybody and his mother would have known about it.

* * *

There’s talk that HSBC Phils. is scouting around for a senior vice-president in charge of corporate banking, now that Isidro Alcantara has accelerated his decision to move his family to Canada.

As a bonus, the new SVP might end up as HSBC Philippines’ first Filipino chief executive officer, something that current CEO Warner Manning has been quietly pushing for.

* * *

There’s talk that plan holders of Pacific Plans Inc. will soon file a class suit against the pre-need company affiliated with the Yuchengco group. Basically, the plan holders aren’t too excited about the P250-million personal contribution of Alfonso Yuchengco to help resolve PPI’s current inability to meet the tuition requirements of its open-ended plan holders. Here are two reasons why.

One, Al Yuchengco isn’t giving away the P250 million but just lending it to PPI. That means plan holders will end up paying the loan anyway, after being appropriately grateful to Mr. Yuchencgo.

Two, the money may help planholders pay their children’s tuition for the 2005-2006 school year or for the first semester of 2005 but more money will have to be raised if PPI intends to pay the tuition paid for in advanced by planholders for the succeeding years.

* * *

Here are indications that incoming Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. is open to the needs of the banking sector even if he’s never been a member of the Bankers Association of the Philippines.

Last week, the Monetary Board, which was chaired by Say Tetangco as Bangko Sentral officer-in-charge (since Governor Rafael Buenaventura is still in the United States), has agreed to allow banks to sell linked products or derivatives.

There’s also talk that the Bangko Sentral will soon drop the moratorium on the opening of bank branches now that its objective to encourage mergers and acquisitions among banks has been achieved.

While there are still banks out there that are mismanaged and may, therefore, face closure, these are too small to affect the industry on the whole.