PDIC: Banco Filipino clients can claim only P9.4B in deposits

Depositors of Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank can only claim some P9.4 billion in deposits from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC), the government-owned insurer said Friday. The deposit base of the thrift bank totaled P15 billion as of March 15, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas records showed. PDIC executive vice president Cristina Orbeta said some of the insurer’s personnel have already been deployed to the 62 branches of Banco Filipino to gather and safeguard the bank’s records and assets. “We shall give updates as soon as the examination of bank records is complete. The entire organization has been mobilized to fast track the payment of deposit insurance," she said in a press conference Friday. On Thursday, the PDIC placed the Aguirre-owned thrift bank under receivership. The Bangko Sentral said Banco Filipino was unable to save itself from its financial woes. Starting next week, the state-run insurer will hold depositors’ forum to explain the procedures and requirements for filing claims and to answer depositors’ queries. “We assure depositors that we will pay deposit insurance for all valid accounts," Orbeta pointed out. She also reminded the borrowers of the thrift bank to settle their outstanding loans to the agents of the government-owned insurer or to its accounts with the Philippine National Bank. Deposit insurance claims The BSP said depositors with a balance of P5,000 and below — about 53 percent of the total depositors — need not file their deposit insurance claims. The PDIC will immediately process and mail payments within the week. Those with balances of over P5,000 would still have to be validated and need to file for their claims, the central bank said. Data from the central bank showed that Banco Filipino had 177,652 depositors with total deposits of P15 billion. Furthermore, 97 percent of the depositors had deposits of P500,000 or less and were thus covered by deposit insurance. — JE, GMA News