Gov't takes over Export & Industry Bank

MANILA, Philippines -  The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has placed listed Export & Industry Bank (EIB) under receivership,  an official said on Friday.

Nestor Espenilla Jr., BSP deputy governor, said in an interview with ABS-CBN News that the Monetary Board decided to place EIB under receivership Thursday evening following information from Juan Victor Tanjuatco, EIB president, that the bank would be unable to service its maturing deposits.

“Based on that information, the MB has decided that the bank has severe liquidity problem and  invoked the Section 30 of the BSP Charter and placed the bank under the control of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.,” Espenilla said.

The BSP official said EIB has about 50,000 depositors holding some P14 billion in deposits.  He also said EIB has assets worth P25 billion and has 50 branches all over the country, most of which are located in Metro Manila.

“We don’t anticipate a disorder processing of the claims of deposit insurance of depositors from the PDIC,” Espenilla said.

Although the EIB has been having financial problems, the bank was negotiating a rescue package with the Sy-owned Banco de oro Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender, but the deal fell through.

Espenilla assured the public that the Philippine banking industry remains stable and that EIB is the country’s smallest commercial bank.

“This (EIB) is a commercial bank, one of the smallest commercial banks. Its assets were only 0.3 percent of the total assets of the banking industry and the information about EIB has been known for some time now among the banks so this is a largely contained problem,” Espenilla said.

At the Philippine Stock Exchange, trading of EIB stocks had been suspended since 2009.

The PDIC said it will be holding a number of fora among EIB’s depositors to inform them of procedures for the processing of their claims. The PDIC expects to pay depositors by June. 

PDIC said that for depositors with balance of P10,000 and below, with no pending bank application or obligation, they will no longer have to file any claims, while those who have deposits of higher than P10,000, they will have to file their claims.

The venues and dates of the fora will be announced. Depositors are also urged to visit www.pdic.gov.ph to get more information about the processing of their claims.

“AS a receiver, the PDIC takes control of records, bank records and inventories and proceeds with processing of settlement claims. Going over the records of the banks and looking at the conduct of its affairs will also be part of this process,” said Valentin Araneta, PDIC president.