Banking co-regulator Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) said it settled 19,289 deposit insurance claims in the first 10 months of the year worth P600.5 million.
The settled claims accounted for 92 percent of the P651.4 million total estimated insured deposits of seven banks ordered closed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) from January to October this year.
“(The amount was) well within established turnaround time (TAT) for claims settlement,” said the deposit insurer. It added that PDIC “continues to demonstrate its steadfast commitment to protect the welfare of depositors affected by bank closures through expedient processing and payment of their deposit insurance claims from January to October 2023.”
In a statement, PDIC said the filing of deposit insurance claims is waived for depositors with valid deposits of up to P100,000 and who are eligible for automatic payments.
“These depositors were paid through postal money orders (PMO) involving 16,390 claims (85% of the total number of claims settled) that amounted to P136.8 million or 22.8% of total payments made from January to October this year,” it said.
The PDIC said it was able to dispatch the PMO payments within 10 to 17 working days from the date of its takeover of the closed bank and this was “faster than the target dispatch of 14 to 19 days as determined by the number of deposit accounts in a closed bank.”
As for depositors required to file their claims such as depositors with deposit balances of more than P100,000 or who did not qualify for waived filing, the PDIC was able to settle this within the required TAT of 15 to 27 working days.
PDIC said it paid P463.7 million in insured deposits with more than P100,000 claims or 77.2 percent of the total payments within the period. “Payments represented 2,899 claims or 15% of the total number of claims settled,” it noted.
PDIC is the state deposit insurer mandated to protect depositors through deposit insurance of up to P500,000 per depositor, per bank.
Banks ordered closed by the BSP’s Monetary Board are placed under PDIC receivership and their depositors paid up to the maximum coverage.
In the first 10 months, the Monetary Board ordered closed and placed under PDIC liquidation the following banks: Rural Bank of San Agustin (Isabela), Inc.; Rural Bank of San Marcelino Inc. (Zambales); Binangonan Rural Bank Inc. (Rizal); Rural Bank of San Juan (Southern Leyte) Inc.; Bangko Pangasinan – A Rural Bank Inc.; United Consumers Rural Bank (Isabela) Inc.; and Rural Bank of Talisay (Cebu) Inc.
Last year, the PDIC Charter was amended and took effect on July 20, 2022. The new law also transferred PDIC to the BSP as an attached agency from the Department of Finance (DOF). This was done to improve policy and program coordination as banking co-regulator.
By September last year, the BSP, DOF and PDIC has issued the IRR for Republic Act No. 11840 which amended certain provisions of RA No. 3591, or the PDIC Charter.