PDIC paid P281.5-M in deposit insurance claims in 2024
Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC). INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) said it “promptly” disbursed P281.5 million in deposit insurance claims in 2024, which benefited the depositors of three troubled rural and cooperative banks that had been shuttered by regulators.
In a statement, the PDIC –– which is mandated to protect depositors and their funds –– said the deposit insurance claims were paid to 7,482 accounts held by Rural Bank of Cuyo (Palawan) Inc., Cooperative Bank of Bohol and Community Rural Bank of Medellin (Cebu) Inc.
That represented 81 percent of the total 9,231 accounts that had been maintained with the three banks, which were ordered closed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) last year and are now under liquidation by the PDIC.
READ: PDIC to hike bank deposit protection
This means the P281.5 million deposit insurance claims that had been settled last year accounted for 94 percent of the combined P298.6 million insured deposits of the three shuttered banks.
The PDIC said all claims were disbursed within the turnaround time.
Broken down, outright reimbursements amounting to P126.8 million were made for 6,738 accounts since their deposits were within the maximum deposit insurance coverage (MDIC) of P500,000 per depositor per bank. This group of depositors was no longer required to file a claim with the PDIC and received their reimbursements within 10 to 18 working days from the dates the state insurer took over the banks.
Meanwhile, payments for depositors who were required to file claims amounted to P154.7 million. These were disbursed within 18 to 27 working days to cover 744 deposit accounts.
All payouts last year were charged against the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF), which stood at P236.95 billion by the end of 2024. Depositors of closed banks have two years to file their deposit insurance claims from the date of PDIC’s takeover of the bank.
Latest data from the BSP showed deposits held by the local banking sector grew by 7 percent to P20.37 trillion last year. That amount of cash, deemed as a major lifeline for banks, was kept in 143.35 million deposit accounts as of end-2024, up by 18 percent.
Those accounts belonged to 128.73 million depositors, representing a 15-percent expansion in the industry’s customer base.
Last January, PDIC president and CEO Roberto Tan said his agency had completed a study that recommended hiking the current MDIC of P500,000 per depositor per bank. But Tan at the time said the PDIC board had yet to decide on the magnitude of the fresh hike in bank deposit protection.
The last time the MDIC increased was in 2009—doubling from P250,000 to P500,000—through an earlier amendment to the PDIC charter.
