PDIC to start payout of deposit claims next week

Tagbilaran City, BOHOL - -

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) will start paying out claims on insured deposits of closed rural banks on February 13.

PDIC vice president for Comptrollership Geronimo Ambe made this assurance this morning during a meeting with over 1,000 depositors of Pilipino Rural Bank (PRBank) Tagbilaran Branch here at the Bohol Cultural Center, this city.

According to Ambe the first batch of payout will run until March 6 starting with insured deposits below P250,000.

Based on PDIC records, there are 14,762 depositors of PRBank Tagbilaran, according to Ambe. The list of depositors includes prominent businessmen, retirees, overseas workers, politicians and even two alleged “swertres” financiers.

The deposit insurer will also distribute claim forms next week here in Tagbilaran for other claimants, Ambe said.

PRBank Tagbilaran, an affiliate of the bankrupt Legacy Group, declared a bank holiday last December 12, 2008.

The meeting with Ambe and Boholano depositors came after Gov. Erico Aumentado requested PDIC to resolve complaints of local depositors who were annoyed by the delay in processing of their claims.

Ambe appealed to depositors to be patient as there are 28 other rural banks that the PDIC had to attend to.

Claims will be processed on a first come, first served basis after the PDIC have completed paying out claims below P250,000, Ambe added.

Last week another rural bank here in Bohol also declared a holiday after depositors started withdrawing their deposits following apprehensions on the closure of PRBank.

The Rural Bank of Maribojoc, Inc. (RBM) had been operating smoothly for the past 31 years until its depositors lost confidence on its stability, according to the rural bank’s chairman Restituto Tan.

RBM has already applied for a P20-million emergency loan from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to revitalize its operations.

Last Monday officials of the BSP scrutinized bank records and transactions to assess if a loan can be granted, according to Tan.
Until now, the Monetary Board has not placed RBM under receivership.