The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) was able to speed up the payment of deposit insurance claims for nine banks ordered closed by the Monetary Board (MB) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in 2022.
In a statement, the state deposit insurer said it had 18,546 deposit insurance claims totaling P614.2 million for 2022. The PDIC also settled all 2,670 deposit insurance claims filed during field operations claims settlement (FOCS) in the same year within the target turnaround time (TAT) of seven working days from receipt of valid claims or approval of Report of Validation/Register of Insured Deposits, whichever comes later.
The total amount comprised 95% of the total estimated insured deposits of P647.9 million in the nine banks ordered closed by the MB in 2022. Claims on the remaining 5% aggregating P33.7 million were yet to be filed or were submitted with incomplete or deficient documents as of year-end.
Valid deposit accounts with balances of P100,000 and below that qualified for waived filing of claims were settled within nine to 20 days during the year compared to the TAT of 17 to 40 days in 2021, and for automatic payment and paid via postal money order (PMO) consisting of 15,454 or 83.3% of the total claims settled during the year.
On the other hand, claims for deposits with balances above P100,000 and those that did not qualify for waived filing were also settled faster, due to the resumption of the PDIC’s field operations claims settlement (FOCS) after the easing of pandemic restrictions in 2022 and the implementation of additional payment options for filed claims.
With the continued relaxing of Covid-19 health protocols in 2022, the examination of deposits, processing of claims and dispatch of PMO payments were significantly faster compared to 2021. It also allowed the PDIC to resume its FOCS activities such as acceptance, processing, and settlement of deposit insurance claims in the premises of seven of the nine banks ordered closed in 2022.
Filed claims with complete documents and updated records can be settled on the same day during FOCS in 2022, which was not possible in 2021. Another mode of filing deposit insurance claims is through the PDIC’s head office claims settlement (HOCS). For 2022, a total of 422 claims were paid via HOCS.
“Prompt reimbursement of deposit insurance is one of the top priorities of the PDIC, as part of our overarching mandate for depositor protection. That is why we continue to explore various ways to improve our turnaround time and provide more convenience to depositors of closed banks,” PDIC president Roberto B. Tan said in a statement.
Closed bank depositors who filed claims either by FOCS or HOCS also now have more convenient options to secure payments through the multi-channel disbursement facility (MCDF), an agreement forged with a partner bank in December 2021.
The MCDF allows for payments via electronic transfers to deposit accounts with other banks or accounts with electronic money issuers. Depositors may also be paid via cheque and cash-over-the- counter payments with designated branches of another partner bank.
As provided for by the PDIC Charter (Republic Act No. 3591, as amended), depositors of the nine banks ordered closed by the MB in 2022 who have not yet filed their deposit insurance claims have until two years from the date of take over to file a claim. Joshua Manalo