EIB rehab bidding won't push through

MANILA, Philippines - Bidding for the rehabilitation of the shuttered Export and Industry Bank (EIB) won’t push through next week, an official said yesterday.

Asked if the bidding will happen next week, Jun Villaret, officer-in-charge of the corporate affairs office at the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC), said “We will make an announcement by next week after we have assessed the information and documents we have to date.”

Pressed for details, Villaret added in a text message: “PDIC will give update next week on process and timeline of rehabilitation process of EIB.”

Upon opening the pre-qualification bid last month, PDIC said bidding proper will take place on the second half of September. The cause of delay could not be immediately known.

The state deposit insurer took over EIB last April 27 after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) placed it under receivership due to liquidity problems. The bank’s management had admitted it could no longer service its obligations to its depositors.

A bank’s rehabilitation, which will also require BSP approval, will include another lender managing EIB’s finances and paying its large obligations, enough to ensure that after the program the bank could function again properly.

Depositors, however, could still file their claims before PDIC, which has the task to service insured deposits of up to P500,000.

As of its closure last April, PDIC said EIB has a total of 46,134 depositors holding some P14 billion worth of deposits. In a statement Monday, PDIC said it has already paid claims of 34,226 depositors, equivalent to 94.7 percent of the 36,153 submitted to their office. 

The remaining 1,927 claims, meanwhile, “were either being processed awaiting compliance from depositors of documentation requirements, or have been the subject of a netting out process against their loans due to EIB.”

PDIC said “more than 10,000 account holders of EIB” have not yet filed their claims as of last Monday. The agency urged them to submit their claims either by going personally to the PDIC’s office in Makati City or through mail.