Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) President Cristina Que Orbeta rallied members of the rural banking community to take advantage of PDIC's bank strengthening programs to help address the challenges brought about by the changing financial landscape. She said that while rural banks can rely on their inherent strength which is the trust and confidence of their respective communities, in the face of greater competition both from domestic and international banks, this competitive advantage must be combined with capital, good governance, good service and innovative and responsive banking.

Speaking before the Annual Management Conference of the Confederation of Central Luzon Rural Banks (CCLRB) held on February 6, 2015, the PDIC President emphasized that PDIC and BSP have put in place strengthening programs to encourage mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation among rural banks and thrift banks to address their capital requirements. "Once a bank is closed, the chances for its rehabilitation becomes very minimal, almost nil, thus we need to face the problems while the bank is still open and come up with solutions early enough to avoid a closure scenario," President Orbeta said.

President Orbeta told the rural banking community that she sees opportunities for PDIC to be a partner in the banks' journey to change through the Strengthening Program for Rural Banks Plus (SPRB Plus), a joint program of the PDIC and BSP; the Strengthening Program for Cooperative Banks Plus (SPCB Plus) of the PDIC, BSP and Land Bank of the Philippines; and PDIC's Investor-Investee Helpdesk.

Under the SPRB Plus, rural, thrift, universal and commercial banks, as well as non-bank corporations that qualify as strategic third party investors or so-called "white knights" may be granted financial assistance for the acquisition of thrift or rural banks. On the other hand, the counterpart program for cooperative banks, the SPCB Plus aims to encourage mergers, consolidations and acquisitions of cooperative banks to strengthen the cooperative banking sector. SPCB Plus has been extended until September 2015, while SPRB Plus will run up to the end of December 2015.

Aside from financial assistance, banks availing of these programs are also granted regulatory relief/s, branching and other incentives by the BSP.

"These are facilities and incentives which may be tapped by banks, who are in investment or expansion mode, to acquire, merge or consolidate with banks that have problems," President Orbeta said.

To facilitate the matching process, PDIC has developed the Investor Investee Helpdesk. The Helpdesk is an electronic match-making facility that aims to identify possible partners for merger and consolidation for all types of banks. It has been designed to preserve confidentiality for all registrants whether as investors or investees. Banks interested to apply as Investor must not be under the BSP's prompt corrective action and should not have been previously cited for violation of PDIC Regulatory Issuances. Meanwhile, to register as an Investee, or a bank looking for an investor, one should also be compliant with all PDIC regulations.

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