PDIC takes over embattled banks

Cebu - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is requesting the depositors of the eight banks that have been put under receivership by the Monetary Board of BSP to inquire about the status of their deposits from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Commission-Deposit Assistance Bureau.

Rogelio Garcia, BSP manager for Media and Government Relations Group of the Corporate Affairs Office, told The Freeman yesterday said that depositors may call the number 02-8414630 to 31 about their deposits.

Garcia said that it will be the PDIC that shall release the money of the depositors up to a maximum of P250,000.

PDIC is a government instrumentality attached to the Department of Finance. The principal role of PDIC is as deposit insurer, co-regulator of banks, receiver, and liquidator of closed banks.

The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the BSP, has designated PDIC as receiver.

As such, the PDIC is mandated to gather and preserve the assets and liabilities of the bank, as well as control, manage, and administer its affairs. This is done for the benefit of both depositors and creditors of the bank.

As the state deposit insurer, PDIC is also tasked to promote and safeguard the interests of the public by providing deposit insurance. 

Receivership on the other hand is defined as the authority given to a person by a court to take over the custody, charge of a property or business etc of someone else, to run the property or business as per the direction issued by the court.

Garcia added that for those depositors (of the eight banks) whose withdrawals have not been served, shall call the number 02 5233631 and look for Miss Joy Locico of the Financial Consumers Affairs Group of BSP.

The banks that were put under receivership by the Monetary Board are the Philippine Countryside Rural Bank and all its branches and the Pilipino Rural Bank and all its branches.

In Cebu, five branches of PCRB in Liloan, Consolacion and in the cities of Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue and Cebu and the two branches of PR Bank in Mandaue and Argao including the Bank of East Asia in Minglanilla have declared a bank holiday earlier this week.

PR Bank in Tagbilaran, Bohol has declared the same.

The six other banks outside Cebu that were put under receivership are the Rural Bank of Bais in Negros Oriental, the Rural Bank of Parañaque, Rural Bank of San Jose, Dynamic Bank in Batangas, San Pablo City Development Bank and the Nation Bank in Bacolod City.

All these banks are under the Legacy Group. They were found by the BSP examiners in July 2007 to have an aggregate undercapitalization of P2.5billion.

BSP then ordered the said banks to be put under receivership, but the bank management filed a case against the latter until the Supreme Court ruled last November 24, 2008 favoring BSP.

According to the press statement sent to The Freeman, the BSP said it is investigating these banks to determine their financial condition and viability as well as violations of banking laws that may have been committed.

“The Bangko Sentral advises the public to avoid making sweeping judgment on the condition of individual banks based on pure speculation as these tend to be self-fulfilling,” the statement read.

The BSP added that these banks represents only a tiny fraction of the banking system and that this reaffirms the BSP’s assessment that the banking system remains stable, highly-capitalized and highly liquid. —/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)