‘Stop double your money scheme’

Sunday, October 23, 2011

A MEMBER of the House of Representatives has urged the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to put an end to the double-your-money, five-year term deposit products being
offered by a number of lenders, mostly rural banks.

“These double-your-money offerings, which supposedly guarantee a net interest rate of 15 percent per annum, compounded yearly, clearly constitute unsafe and unsound
banking practice,” said Rep. Arnel Ty, of the sectoral party LPG Marketers’ Association (LPG-MA).

“The promised effective yield is definitely excessive – at three times the average five percent interest rate being offered by reputable banks for five-year deposit
placements,” said Ty, a member of the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries.

He said many of the rural banks that recently collapsed were found tendering the double-your-money scheme.

“These now failed banks were likely already having serious liquidity problems that drove them to offer such sky-high deposit interest rates. Unfortunately, the
extremely high-yielding deposits also pushed them into riskier lending activities that broke the bank,” Ty said.

Ty also urged the state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) to take forceful legal action against the officers of bankrupted lenders found to have committed
fraud or violated the country’s banking laws.

“The fact that each depositor of an insolvent institution is insured up to P500,000 does not make bleeding a bank dry a victimless offense,” he said.

“Depositors of banks in receivership agonize over when they’ll get their money back, and how much they will actually recover. Meanwhile, without access to their funds,
they struggle to cope with living expenses, and to pay obligations such as the school fees of their children, a credit card bill, or a home loan,” Ty pointed out.

“In a way, taxpayers are also victims, since the PDIC is a government instrumentality attached to the Department of Finance,” he added.

Ty previously filed House Resolution 1749, seeking an inquiry into the collapse of LBC Development Bank. Ty said he is hopeful that the House would be able to start
its inquiry upon the resumption of session next month.

On top of Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank and LBC, the BSP has so far closed 25 mostly rural banks this year.

In 2010, the BSP shut 32 rural banks, including 13 that were linked to the Legacy Group of Companies. (PR)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 24, 2011.