PDIC updates on Rural Bank of Paranaque (RBoP)

James Ryan Jonas

PMT Forum member tacamonchi recently shared some useful updates about the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (PDIC) takeover of the Rural Bank of Paranaque (Banco Paranaque) in the thread Legacy Financial Group’s rural banks.

Early this week, he visited RBoP’s Ortigas branch and was able to talk to a Ms. Hermie from the PDIC who graciously answered all his questions. Here are what he have gathered from the conversation.

1. The PDIC reiterated that they have enough money to pay all depositors. They just do not have enough manpower to process more than 100,000 accounts.

2. To help speed up the audit process, the PDIC has decided to hire additional auditors from the Sycip, Gorres and Velayo (SGV) firm.

3.  Unless their stay is extended by the head office, PDIC personnel will be manning Banco Paranaque’s premises up to this Friday (January 9, 2009) only. They are there only to answer questions and disseminate info to bank depositors. All applications and filings are to be made in the PDIC head office.

4. To get claim forms from the PDIC Makati office, a depositor must bring all original copies of the Certificate of Time Deposits (CTDs) or passbooks for verification purposes. Claiming of payout checks would require the personal appearance of the person whose name is on the check. If that person is not available, a notarized Special Power of Attorney (SPA) will have to be presented. For In Trust For (ITF) accounts, the adult representative needs to present a valid ID together with the original birth certificate of the ITF minor.

5. The PDIC confirmed that individual accounts are separately insured from joint accounts.

6. There is no schedule yet when depositors whose balance is more than P100,000 can get application forms from the PDIC, but they are advised to contact the PDIC for updates.

I hope these information will help depositors of the Rural Bank of Paranaque and other closed rural banks. For more news and updates and to join discussions with other depositors of these banks, visit the following forum threads:

James Ryan Jonas teaches business management, investments, and entrepreneurship at the University of the Philippines (UP). He is also the Executive Director of UP Provident Fund Inc., managing and investing P3.2 Billion ($56.4 Million) worth of retirement funds on behalf of thousands of UP employees.