BSP monitors benefits, bonuses of bank officials

MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is keeping a close watch on the fringe benefits and bonuses of institutions supervised by the central bank following the highly publicized outrage of American taxpayers on the exorbitant bonuses paid to key officers of bankrupt American International Group (AIG) over a year ago.

The BSP said the close monitoring is significant particularly for banks operating in the Philippines as 75.4 percent of their operations are being funded by deposit liabilities generally sourced from the general public.

The central bank started scrutinizing the fringe benefits and bonuses of BSP-supervised institutions as American taxpayers raised a howl when AIG paid exorbitant bonuses to key officers after receiving close to $180 billion in bailout money from the US Federal Reserve in 2008.

In the Philippines, the BSP reported that expenditures on compensation and fringe benefits of employees accounted for 35.8 percent or P74.7 billion of the total non-interest expenses that reached P208.6 billion last year. This was higher than the 33.8 percent or P67.5 billion share of the total non-interest expenses that amounted to P199.5 billion in 2008.

Likewise, data showed that the share of bank’s fringe benefits for directors, officers, and employees including directors’ fees also accounted for 7.8 percent or P16.2 billion of the total non-interest expenses in 2009 or higher than the 6.9 percent or P13.4 billion registered in 2008.

According to the BSP, the increase in the share was influenced by the 21.4 percent or P2.8 billion growth in the fringe benefits of officers and employees.

It added that 55.7 percent or P41.7 billion of the total non-interest expenses still went to salaries and wages of employees last year, down from 58.8 percent or P39.7 billion in 2008.

On the other hand, bank contributions for retirement or provident fund consituted the third largest portion of bank spending for compensation and fringe benefits at 8.8 percent or P6.6 billion in 2009 from 8.6 percent or P5.8 billion in 2008.