WHILE the Rural Bank of Mandaue (RBM) experienced an unusual volume of withdrawals, an official yesterday said it is “absolutely not true” that the bank was closed.
Bank assistant manager Amelia Bersonda said their finances remain okay, allaying fears stoked by the closures of the Legacy-affiliated rural banks in December and of the Rural Bank of Subangdaku (RBS) in Mandaue City last week.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), in a report released Friday, assured that the banking system will be “resilient amid the impact of the global financial crisis.”
It said the banking system is adequately capitalized, and that the BSP will focus on “tightening bank security” and compliance with standards, so that depositors are guaranteed “safe and sound banking practices.”

The Rural Bank of Mandaue issued the clarification in response to a headline (“Mandaue rural bank closes”) in another local paper yesterday. The story focused on the BSP’s closure of the Rural Bank of Subangdaku.

The RBS was placed under receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.(PDIC) last week. It operates in Mandaue, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu, Dumaguete City in Oriental Negros, General Santos City in South Cotabato, and Digos City in Davao del Sur.

Bersonda said the RBM bank withdrawals increased since Legacy-affiliated rural banks declared a holiday last month, but assured these were “not alarming.”
“We are very much a stable bank. The bank is a corporation of the well-off Tudtuds and the Senos (of Mandaue). So please, we do not want our clients to be alarmed by false information,” she told Sun.Star in a mobile phone interview yesterday.

She said RBM remains more than able to serve its clients.

RBM, whose office is in Barangay Centro, is a member of the Cebu Federation of Rural Banks Inc. (CFRBI).

“We are very much independent from all other banks. We have our own strength and we are continuously serving the needs of our clients,” said Bersonda, who is also CFRBI secretary.

Daniel Arcenas, CFRBI president, has assured in previous interviews that 99 percent of their members are “very much stable,” including those whose branches are situated adjacent to Legacy banks.

A BSP report released last week said the operating network of the country’s banks increased to 7,811 branches as of end-September 2008, from 7,736 in the same period last year, “reflecting mainly the increase in commercial and rural banks’ branches.”

It also reported, however, that the number of banking institutions fell to 835 (from 852 in September 2007), because of the “continued consolidation of banks, as well as the exit of weaker players in the banking system.”

Overall, “bank lending grew significantly, bank asset quality further improved, and banks remained adequately capitalized,” the central bank said. (AIV)