AMA Rural Bank of Mandaluyong, Inc. (AMA Bank) is encouraging the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to formally withdraw impediments to allow the bank to finally re-open its operations. The bank has also expressed concern about the continuous delay in private funds and asset restoration despite the final and executory decisions by both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
In a statement issued by the central bank on Thursday (January 30), it said it has a pending motion for reconsideration with the Supreme Court and that the action “does not prevent AMA Bank from reopening and paying its depositors and creditors.”
The BSP added that it has maintained its position that the bank should reopen “in accordance with laws and regulations that ensure the safety of its depositors and our banking system.” It even reiterated its commitment to uphold court rulings while pursuing all legal measures available to fulfill its mandate.
No less than the Supreme Court has previously upheld a ruling by the Court of Appeals that AMA Bank’s closure in 2019 was unjust and the bank’s operations must be restored. The highest tribunal, in a resolution dated March 1, 2023, ruled that the BSP Monetary Board’s order to close and liquidate the bank was null and void.
Through MB Resolution No. 1705.D dated November 7, 2019, the BSP prohibited AMA Bank from continuing operations and directed the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.(PDIC) to proceed with a takeover and liquidation of the lender.
The Court of Appeals on September 7, 2020 ruled that the Monetary Board’s order was “unwarranted as it is not based on the grounds provided by law.” For its part, the Supreme Court described the violations cited by the Monetary Board as generic terms and catch-all phrases that were vague and unclear, hence, its decision.
“It bears stressing that while BSP is granted with regulatory powers needed in the exercise of its supervision over the operations of banks, such powers must be exercised within the metes and bounds of law,” the Supreme Court said.
AMA Bank is pointing out that BSP’s most recent statements about the case contradicts its own motions it said it had filed with the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. In that motion, the central bank argued that “the Court of Appeals cannot act on AMA Bank’s Motion for Execution and, consequently, AMA Bank cannot yet re-open, because BSP’s second Motion for Reconsideration remains pending with the Supreme Court.”
AMA Bank is also seeking clarification on BSP’s January 30 statement that the bank is allowed to reopen, in compliance with the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court rulings. “AMA Bank likewise urges BSP to promptly return AMA Bank’s reserve funds amounting to more or less PHP135 million, direct the PDIC to likewise immediately return the cash assets of AMA Bank in the total amount of approximately PHP340 million that PDIC seized pursuant to the null and void closure order of BSP, and advise the Department of Education (DepEd) to promptly release to AMA Bank the collections from teachers’ loans in the sum of more than PHP1.4 billion.”
“Upon BSP’s performance of the foregoing, AMA Bank shall forthwith re-open for the sole and limited purpose of paying its long-suffering depositors who have been the unwitting victims of BSP’s closure of AMA Bank,” the bank added.
AMA Bank is part of the AMA Group of Companies. It was operating 12 branches across the country aside from its head office in Mandaluyong City before it was ordered to cease operations by the BSP in November 2019.