MANILA: A Philippine bank has been shut down for running a "Ponzi" scheme, luring thousands of customers with high yields and using new deposits to pay off interest on old ones, the central bank said Wednesday.
It said it had asked the justice ministry to file criminal charges against 10 senior officials and members of the board of Banco Filipino, which the monetary authority shut down last month after it was hit with heavy withdrawals.
"Banco Filipino was operating as a pyramid or Ponzi scheme in the past years, using new deposits to pay old ones, and with its officers paying themselves and their lawyers much more than the bank was earning," it said.
It said the bank's directors, officers, and shareholders had lent themselves 2.2 billion pesos ($51 million) or more than half its total loan portfolio, and 91 percent of all loans were past due as of September last year.
While the savings bank's annual income averaged 242.5 million pesos in the three years to calendar year 2009, it spent 2.5 times this amount on salaries, benefits and professional fees, a central bank statement said.
The lender also owed the central bank 4.4 billion pesos in past due loans as of September last year, it added.
It said the thrift lured its 177,652 depositors with rates of between 6.0 and 13.9 percent compared to the industry savings account standard of between 1.0 and 2.0 percent, causing interest expenses to top interest income.
More than half its clients had deposits of 5,000 pesos or less, it added.
The bank's chief lawyer, director and spokesman, Perfecto Yasay, who is among the 10 bank officials named in the central bank complaint filed with the justice ministry, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Harry Roque, described by the central bank statement as a Banco Filipino lawyer, alleged in his online journal that its troubles were due to the central bank's refusal to extend it an emergency loan to cover the rush of withdrawals.
Calls by AFP to his mobile phone number were not returned on Wednesday.
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