The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) recently filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) a criminal case against a former President of a closed bank for intentionally filing a false bank report to the PDIC in violation of the PDIC Charter, and for perjury in violation of the Revised Penal Code.

Suzette Liwag Banzon, former President and Manager of the closed Filhomes Savings and Loan Bank, Inc. (FSLBI), was accused of knowingly and intentionally signing and submitting five falsified Regular Certified Statements (RCS) to PDIC relative to the deposit balances of FSLBI for the years 2002 to 2004 violating Section 21 (f) (3) of the PDIC Charter. These bank reports understated the bank’s aggregate deposits by P284.5 million resulting to lower assessment payments and risks to the PDIC Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). The DIF is the funding source for deposit insurance payouts in case of bank closures.

All member banks are required to submit the RCS, or a summary of all the member-bank’s deposit liabilities and the amount of assessment to be paid by the bank to PDIC to insure its deposits. The bank President or the bank’s authorized signatory attests to the veracity of the information contained in the RCS. The RCS is subject to an assessment audit of the PDIC.

The bank reports showed a discrepancy between the subsidiary ledgers (SL) and general ledger for the bank’s deposit liabilities. The GL for deposits was found to have been understated since 2002 and was corrected only in November and December 2004, barely a few months prior to the closure of the bank in January 2005. The SL represents the transactions of each individual deposit while the GL contains the aggregate amount of deposits. By understating the GL, the bank in effect, paid a lower amount for its deposit insurance assessment, hence, incurred an assessment deficiency.

The sworn affidavits of FSLBI’s former employees indicate that Banzon gave direct instructions to manipulate the bank’s records by deducting the interest expenses on deposits to address the bank’s continuing losses due to interest expenses on deposits. The former employees added that the SL and GL for deposits are reconciled on instruction of Banzon whenever the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is about to examine the books of the bank.

The Monetary Board placed the FLSBI under PDIC receivership on January 21, 2005. As of April 30, 2012, PDIC had paid almost P407 million in deposit insurance claims, or 90.1% of the total estimated insured deposits amounting to P447.7 million.

Violation of Section 21 (f) (3) of the PDIC Charter is punishable by prison mayor or a fine of not less than P500,000 but not more than P2 million.

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) was established on June 22, 1963 by Republic Act 3591 to provide depositor protection and help maintain stability in the financial system by providing permanent and continuing deposit insurance. Effective June 1, 2009, the maximum deposit insurance coverage is P500,000 per depositor. All deposit accounts by a depositor in a closed bank maintained in the same right and capacity shall be added together. A joint account shall be insured separately from any individually-owned deposit account.

PDIC news/press releases and other information are available at the website, www.pdic.gov.ph.