Gov’t sells bank assets worth P1.5 B

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) earned some P1.5 billion from disposing assets of padlocked banks last year.

The PDIC said it generated P1.46 billion in total sales from 216 corporate and closed bank assets sold in 2022 as part of its asset disposal initiatives.

This is a significant increase of over 300 percent from the P342 million sale in 2021 done via public biddings and negotiated sales.

Last year’s total sales were also slightly up by 2.2 percent from the sold properties’ aggregate minimum disposal price of P1.43 billion.

Sold assets comprised 182 residential, 18 commercial and 15 agricultural lots, as well as one memorial lot.

Of the total, 155 were owned by closed banks while 61 were acquired assets of the PDIC.

PDIC said most of the properties are located in Metro Manila, Central and South Luzon.

As the mandated liquidator, the PDIC sells closed bankowned assets through public biddings and negotiated sales.

Proceeds of such transactions are added to the pool of liquid assets of the banks for distribution to uninsured depositors and other creditors subject to the rules on concurrence and preference of credits.

The disposal of these assets increases the chances of recovery of uninsured depositors and creditors of their trapped funds in the closed banks.

Meanwhile, proceeds from the sale of corporate assets are added to the Deposit Insurance Fund, PDIC’s main fund source for payment of valid deposit insurance claims.

Amid the challenges due to the pandemic, PDIC shifted to e-bidding of corporate and closed bank assets through its portal for a safe and convenient platform for interested buyers.

Through a one-time registration in the e-bidding portal, buyers can access and bid for real and other properties from the asset inventory of the PDIC and closed banks.