• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Bank deposits in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental logged an increase in 2023, compared to the year prior, with P150.6 billion and P208.9 billion, respectively, for a total of almost P360 billion, an official of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) said Aug. 6.
These deposits came from 783,026 accounts in Bacolod, and 1,401,590 in the province, which also increased compared to year 2022, as presented by PDIC Corporate Affairs Group vice president Jose Villaret Jr. during a media briefing in the city.
“The deposits in Negros and Bacolod are growing,” Villaret stressed. “Based on the indications, the local economy is good.”
Villaret said total bank deposits in 2022 in Bacolod reached P137.8 billion, and P204.5 billion in the province, or a total of P342.3 billion, from 740,323 and 1,338,669 accounts, respectively.
Deposits in PDIC-member banks nationwide, as of end March 2024, meanwhile, reached P19.1 trillion, from 126.2 million accounts, Villaret said, adding that 97.46 percent of these accounts are fully ensured by the PDIC.
PDIC, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, is the only deposit insurer in the Philippines, and provides a maximum deposit insurance coverage of P500,000 per depositor, per bank, since 2009.
Established in 1963 as a proactive measure to sustain the growth of the banking system, the PDIC is the government instrumentality mandated to protect depositors and promote financial stability through deposit insurance, Villaret said.
The deposit insurance protection coverage includes savings, time and demand, and foreign currency deposits in the Philippines. Villaret said membership with the PDIC is mandatory for all banks licensed by the BSP to operate in the Philippines.
As of June this year, there are 478 banks in the country, with 12,886 offices nationwide. Of these banks, 44 are universal and commercial banks with 7,123 banking offices, 42 thrift banks with 2,567 offices, 386 rural and cooperative banks with 3,196 offices, and six digital banks.
Villaret and other PDIC executives at the media forum urged everyone to save money. “Save wisely and deposit in banks as this is safer and the deposit is protected and insured.”
He added that aside from being a deposit insurer, PDIC is also a co-regulator of banks, and works closely with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and other financial regulators to ensure the stability of the banking system; and as a receiver of closed banks, which takes over a bank ordered closed by the Monetary Board, administers the closed bank’s assets and affairs, and liquidates closed banks through the collection of loan payment from borrowers and does disposal activities to liquidate remaining assets, among others. | CGC
