De la Paz says EPCI Bank chairmanship does not violate BSP rules

Social Security System (SSS) president and CEO Corazon de la Paz said yesterday that her concurrent position as chairman of the board of Equitable PCI Bank does not violate any regulations on public officials.

This as she clarified that the EPCI Bank board had already amended its by-laws, making the positions of chairman and vice-chairman as non-managerial to comply with the provision on public officials taking private posts.

De la Paz explained that the board passed the resolution last July reclassifying the chairman and the vice-chairman positions as officers.

"This is to eliminate all doubts," De la Paz said, reacting to a recent ruling by the Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), disqualifying her from holding the EPCI Bank post.

"We don’t function as officers of the bank," she stressed, adding that the day-to-day operations of the third largest lender in the country is left to bank management, headed by its president Rene Buenaventura.

Sec. 19 of the General Banking Law (GBL), which states, that "no appointive or elective public official, whether full-time or part time, shall at the same time serve as officer of any private bank, save in cases where such service is incident to financial assistance provided by the government or a government-owned and controlled corporation to the bank or unless otherwise provided under existing laws."

Also affected by this prohibition is Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president and general manager Winston F. Garcia, who also sits in the EPCI Bank board as co-vice chairman. The other vice chairman is Teresita Sy of SM Group.

EPCI Bank board officials said the revisions to the by-laws were already submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the BSP a month ago.

Last month, the bank’s committee on good governance suggested that amendments to the bank’s by-laws were in order.

The same committee studied the provisions of the GBL thus concluding the need to amend the by-laws in order to avoid any possible infringement, considering that De la Paz and Garcia are appointive public officials.

"The board has resolved to adopt the recommendation of the committee. I have explained this to the BSP a month ago," the SSS chief executive added.

Meanwhile, EPCI Bank will sell a stake in itself held by a subsidiary. The bank’s board has adopted a resolution "to cause’’ its EBC Investments Inc. to sell its holding in the bank, EPCI Bank said in a statement to the stock exchange, without being more specific.

The stake amounts to 11 percent, which would be valued at about P6.5 billion, based on EPCI Bank’s share price yesterday, which fell to P79.50.