A SENATOR has filed a measure to help protect cooperatives’ money by establishing the Philippine Cooperative Deposit Insurance Corp.
Senator Francis N. Pangilinan filed Senate Bill No. 2249 or the Cooperative Depositors Act of 2021.
Mr. Pangilinan said while cooperative banks are included in the membership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., other savings and credit cooperatives are not.
“In the 2019 data of the Cooperative Development Authority, it is estimated that more or less 40% of the total number of cooperatives are engaged in the business of savings and credit,” he said. “In view of the foregoing, the immediate passage of this bill is earnestly sought.”
Under the bill, the proposed Philippine Cooperative Deposit Insurance Corp. will be a tax-exempt government corporation attached to the Finance department.
It will provide deposit insurance for cooperatives and can also receive, liquidate and wind up any cooperative in case of insolvency.
The Cooperative Development Authority can appoint it as a receiver of a closed cooperative. As a receiver, it “shall control, manage and administer the affairs of the closed cooperative.”
An insured deposit, under the bill, is the “amount due to any bona fide depositor for legitimate deposits in an insured cooperative net of any obligation of the depositor to the insured cooperative as of the date of closure, but not to exceed P300,000.”
The permanent insurance fund of the deposit insurer shall be P500 million, according to the bill.
When an insured cooperative is closed by the Cooperative Development Authority, the payment of the insured deposits with the closed cooperative shall be made either through cash or via the transfer of their original deposit to another insured cooperative.
The cooperative deposit insurer shall also report annually to the Congress on its operations and its financial transactions, which will be audited by the Commission on Audit. — VMMV