Five prominent business groups have called on lawmakers to restore more than ₱107 billion in excess funds remitted by state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) to the national government, as they stressed the need to uphold confidence in the country’s financial system.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, Nov. 18, Makati Business Club (MBC), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), and Philippine Finance Association (PFA) urged Congress to return the transferred funds as the 2026 national budget proposal is still undergoing deliberation.

The business groups said restoring PDIC’s funds would help strengthen its institutional integrity “as the nation’s last line of defense for depositors.”

“Returning the remitted funds will reaffirm that the resources of PDIC are reserved exclusively for their intended purpose, to safeguard the savings of the Filipino people and to uphold confidence in the financial system,” the statement read.

In January, PDIC remitted ₱107.23 billion of its “unrestricted retained earnings” to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) to fund some of the government’s major infrastructure and social programs.

The transfer was enabled by a special provision in the 2024 national budget that allows the government to collect excess funds from government-owned and/or -controlled corporations (GOCCs).

The business groups noted that while PDIC’s deposit insurance fund (DIF)—the pool reserved to pay insured depositors in the event of bank closures—was untouched by the remittance, any act of transferring PDIC’s reserves “raises serious concerns.”

They said the strength of the country’s banking system, which boasts strong capitalization and improving asset quality, rests on the guarantee that it will protect depositors in times of crisis.

“That assurance, even symbolically, could weaken the foundation of public confidence that sustains the financial system,” they said.

The five business groups stated that the transfer sets a “dangerous fiscal precedent” as it raises reputational risks for the government, regulators, and the entire banking sector at a time when public trust is already strained by corruption scandals and fiscal pressures.

It also blurs the distinction between a fiscal instrument and a financial safety net, while creating uncertainty about the independence and integrity of the deposit insurance system.

“PDIC must remain independent, transparent, and sufficiently capitalized to perform its core mandate of protecting depositors,” the groups said.

The groups stressed that lawmakers must restore the ₱107.23 billion to PDIC by including the funds in its balance sheet.

The five business groups recalled that state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) also remitted excess funds to the national treasury, amounting to ₱60 billion.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. announced in September that these funds would be returned to the state health insurer’s budget next year.

“The same principle should apply to PDIC. Funds accumulated to insure the savings of Filipino depositors must remain dedicated to their original purpose. Both PhilHealth and PDIC exist to protect the public in moments of vulnerability,” the groups said.

To further affirm confidence in the state-run firm, they recommended a ring-fencing policy for the DIF, explicitly excluding it from future dividend collections and fiscal transfers.

They also called for transparency regarding disclosures on the current and projected capacity of the PDIC fund to respond to potential systemic shocks.