No special treatment for DBP and Landbank, says BSP chief

MANILA  -Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines, which are seeking a respite in compliance with rules, will be treated and regulated just like any other bank and will not be given special treatment, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr.

Landbank and DBP have pending requests for regulatory relief, in relation to meeting capitalization requirements, after they respectively remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury P50 billion and P25 billion in contribution to the Maharlika Investment Fund.

The requests were filed even if both banks and BSP officials clarify that neither Landbank nor DBP is non-compliant, even after making their contributions to the MIF.

“As far as (banking) regulation is concerned, we will evaluate the request [for regulatory relief] as we do for any other request by banks, and then we will carry out the usual regulations that we carry out,” Remolona said on Wednesday, in an interview with journalists.

“So, they will not be treated in a special way,” the BSP chief said. “They will be regulated the way we always regulate banks.”

Earlier, Remolona said the BSP “in principle” could grant the two banks forbearance, meaning they would be allowed temporarily to not comply with capitalization requirements.