PDIC to pay insured deposits of Urban Bank starting today

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) will service claims for insured deposits up to the maximum amount of P100,000 in the closed Urban Bank starting May 15, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at all Metro Manila and provincial branches. This will include claims for savings, current, time deposit and foreign currency deposit accounts.

All branches in Metro manila and the provinces except for the head office at Urban Bank Plaza and Navotas branch will service claims on a first come-first served basis. Urban Bank Plaza and Navotas branch will observe the following schedule: May 15 -- A-F; May 16 - G-L; May 17 - M-R; May 18 - S-Z. After May 18, first come - first served basis will be observed.

Depositors are advised to present their evidence of deposit (i.e. ATM card, statement of account, certificate of time deposit, unused checks) and two (2) valid identification cards (IDs) bearing the depositor's signature. Other documents may be required by PDIC personnel prior to payment.

Meanwhile, poor record keeping and fictitious transactions are the major causes of delay in the examination of deposit liabilities in most closed banks, including that of Rural Bank of San Miguel (Bulacan) Inc., the PDIC said.

"We (PDIC) have been asked several times why we started payoff for Urban Bank early while there are a number of banks ordered closed ahead of Urban Bank which have yet to start payoff operations. The answer is that the poor record keeping of most of these closed banks and anomalous transactions are hampering our efforts to frasttrack examination," PDIC president Norberto Nazareno explained.

Meanwhile, examination of deposits in RBSM, ordered closed on Jan. 21, was hampered by anomalous accounts, splitting deposits and the conversion of manager's check into split accounts as of the moment, examination is still in progress. PDIC estimates payoff in RBSM to start the first week of June. RBSM has an estimated total deposit liabilities of P566 million and more than 20,000 accounts. Total insured deposits is estimated at P333 million.

On the other hand, the delay in the payment of insured deposits in Prime Savings Bank, the first bank to be ordered closed for the year, was caused by a massive splitting of accounts during a seven-month bank holiday. Prime was closed Jan. 7 and payoff operations started March 29. It has a network of 62 banking units all over the country. The bank used two different systems in their deposit transactions. Prime has estimated total deposit liabilities of P3.5 billion and almost 60,000 accounts. Its total insured deposits is estimated to P1.4 billion.

The biggest that was closed in 1999 was Homeowners Savings and Loan Bank (HOSLA). It had 10 banking units with estimated total deposits liabilities of P1.2 billion. It had close to 70,000 accounts and total insured deposits was placed at P1.17 billion. It was closed Feb. 11, 1999 and payoff operations started April 28 of the same year. HOSLA suffered from massive splitting of accounts to maximize insurance recovery.