San Fernando bank closes, stuns clients

Nearly 500 depositors of the Rural Bank of San Fernando Inc. in Cebu were stunned to find their bank closed yesterday.

Personnel of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the rural bank after the Monetary Board placed it under receivership on Thursday.

“We were really shocked. Some had even deposited cash in their accounts (Thursday) and no warning was issued that the bank will close,” said a female depositor employed with the San Fernando Municipal Hall.

“We trusted the bank because it’s been in operation since we were chidren.”

The woman, who requested anonymity said she learned that a retiree had just deposited P2 million in the bank.

A forum is scheduled on July 10 by the PDIC to brief depositors about the requirements and procedures for filing deposit insurance claims.

“We would like to inform the depositors that we will pay all valid deposit accounts,” PDIC corporate executive officer Errol Ybanez said.

He assured that all valid deposit accounts will be paid up to the maximum deposit insurance coverage of half a million pesos.

Those with larger accounts will be paid depending on how much assets will be left from the bank.

The Cebu Bankers Association said the bank’s closure was isolated and doesn’t affect the rest of the country’s banking system.

“There are banks whose past due accounts exceed their income,” former Cebu Bankers Association president Prudencia Gesta said.

Aside from government employees, the bank’s depositors also included businessmen, vendors and retirees.

Junjun Tapuyao, an employee of the San Fernando Treasurer’s Office, said he had more than P4,000 deposited in the bank.

Just last week, he said, he deposited extra money from his small salary without knowing about the bank’s closure.

In a statement on its website, PDIC described the Rural Bank of San Fernando as a single-unit bank with 3,341 accounts and total deposit liabilities of P83.41 million as of Dec. 31 last year.

The PDIC disclosed that 99.76 percent or 3,333 deposit accounts had balances of P500,000 or less, which were fully covered by deposit insurance.

This comprised of a total insured deposits amounting to P76.81 million or 92.09 percent of the total deposits.

The bank’s latest information sheet dated Dec. 31, 2010 stated that it is majority owned by Milagros A. Villasor (34.72 percent), Guillermo A. Villasor Jr. (8.37 percent), Edwin A. Villasor (7.34 percent), John Robert A. Villasor (7.15 percent), Patrick A. Villasor (6.99 percent), Catalina T. Cuenco (6.87 percent) and Josefina T. Cuenco (6.26 percent). Its chairman and president is Milagros A. Villasor.

The PDIC will first gather, verify and validate all bank records upon the takeover of the bank, before they can process the claims of the depositors.

The PDIC announced that depositors who had deposits of P15,000 and below will not be required to file deposit insurance claims.

The mailing of their payments for these depositors will be done not later than July 17.

It said depositors with outstanding obligations with the Rural Bank of San Fernando including co-makers of the obligations should file deposit insurance claims.

Gesta said the capital size of Rural Bank of San Fernando is very negligible compared to the total assets of the whole banking industry.

In the past five years a handful of small-sized banks already went under receivership including 12 Legacy-affiliated banks which included Rural Bank Subangdaku in 2008.

Banco Filipino, which had three branches in Cebu, also closed in March 2011 and six months later in September, LBC Bank also went under receivership.

The most recent bank that went on receivership before Rural Bank of San Fernando in Cebu is the Export Industry Bank which closed in April last year. Correspondents Jhunnex Napallacan and Michelle Joy L. Padayhag with Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap