Unitrust Bank execs barred from leaving RP

The Monetary Board (MB), the policymaking body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has banned Unitrust Development Bank, the bank owned by Japanese trader Genta Ogami which declared a bank holiday last week, from doing business and has asked the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) to include the bank’s key officers in its watch list and prevent them from leaving the country pending an investigation on the bank’s closure.

The MB said it banned Unitrust from doing business in the Philippines because of its inability to pay its depositors after it declared a bank holiday last Friday.

The BSP asked the BID to prevent the following Unitrust directors/officers’ stockholders from leaving the country: Genta Ogami, Winefredo T. Capilitan, Jose Apolinario Jr., Daniel B. Quilatan, Elmer D. Magpantay, Marcelo J. Vasquez Jr., Motohiko Hagisaka, Fujimori Tada, Hiyoshi Haneda, Evelyn S. Mansit and Lorena N. Oba. (See related story on Page xx).

In a letter to BID Commissioner Andrea Domingo, said BSP examiners reported that depositors are not allowed to enter the bank and that Unitrust has been incurring continuous losses. This was made worse by the recent grant of DOSRI loans with unacceptable collaterals.

Reyes said the BSP’s request is meant to ensure the interest of Unitrust depositors and creditors and to prevent responsibilities Unitrust officers from evading criminal investigation and prosecution of charges which will be filed the soonest time possible.

Unitrust is in serious liquidity position since its deposit liabilities as of Dec. 28 stood at P284.932 million while liquid assets amounted to only P63.554 million.

Last week, the state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. stepped in and took over Unitrust after the MB ordered that the bank be placed under PDIC receivership. Through Resolution 19, the MB bared Unitrust from doing business in the Philippines and designated PDIC as its receiver.

PDIC president and chief executive officer Norberto C. Nazareno said PDIC representatives are currently conducting "control verification" and examination of bank deposits and other records of the bank, including inventory of bank assets in preparation for the servicing of claims for insured deposits."

Nazareno added the examination will be fasttracked to service claims for insured deposits at the soonest possible time.

Unitrust informed the BSP it has been experiencing heavy withdrawals in the past two weeks, with about P100 million already ferreted out of the bank by depositors apparently wary of the new management taking over the bank.

PDIC data show Unitrust has total assets of P0.7 billion, which Nazareno said, is not even less than half of one percent of the industry’s total assets of P3.257 billion. It has estimated deposit liabilities of P284 million and more than 18,000 accounts.

The BSP is still determining the total amount of deposits that remained with the bank a the time of its closure but said latest reports show deposits of more than P400 million. It is also not known how much of the bank’s deposits are insured with PDIC.

Under the law, depositors up to maximum P100,000 per account per person are guaranteed payment but anything beyond that would be paid out of proceeds from a liquidation process if the bank sees it as the last resort.

Reyes said records show Unitrust was already undercapitalized by P160 million when it closed.