A senior executive has been arrested for defrauding the Philippines’ second-largest bank in a scandal that sent the institution’s shares tumbling Friday, officials said.
Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co vice president Maria Victoria Lopez is suspected of stealing 1.75 billion pesos ($34.5 million) in loans from her employer, they added.
A trusted employee of the bank for 30 years, earning a monthly salary of 250,000 pesos, Lopez was arrested Tuesday while trying to move the stolen money to an unspecified personal account, National Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ferdinand Lavin told a press conference.
Lavin said the money was taken from the credit facility of one of its biggest corporate clients.
“The biggest loser of this is the integrity of the banking system,” said Lavin, who added the suspect would be charged with theft, violation of the banking law and falsification of documents.
The bank did not confirm how much was stolen or the time-frame of the fraud, but stressed it did not affect its customers.
“In the context of the bank’s 1.9 trillion-peso financial resources, rest assured that we continue to operate business as usual for the bank and our customers,” it added.
Metrobank, as the bank is known, is investigating whether there were other people involved in the fraud, Lavin added.
Universal Robina Corp, a large food processing company, said Friday the fraudulent loans had been drawn from its credit facility with Metrobank.
“We thank Metrobank President Fabian Dee for giving us heads up advice on this unfortunate development and his assurance that URC will not be financially impacted in any way by this incident,” it said in a statement.
However, the fraud wiped nearly $300 million off the paper value of Metrobank on Friday as investors sold down the stock.
Metrobank shares closed 5.03 percent lower Friday to 86.90 pesos.
The lender’s parent firm GT Capital Holdings fell 2.85 percent to 1,195.00 pesos.
Universal Robina shares closed 0.62 percent down to 161.00 pesos Friday.
But Central Bank governor Nestor Espenilla told reporters he had no doubt Metrobank would be able to absorb the blow.
“Banks have controls so that these kinds of things can be mitigated and withstood,” Espenilla said.
However, he added: “We have to look into the adequacy of those controls if in fact a significant crime happened.”
Last month, a computer virus forced the Bank of the Philippine Islands to shut down online access to its services and cash machines for two consecutive days.
The bug drained some accounts and added money to others.
Last year unidentified hackers stole $81 million from a US account of the Bangladesh central bank, funnelling the stolen funds into a Philippine bank and Manila-based casinos.
