Executive falsified documents, violated procedures in defrauding Metrobank

MANILA, Philippines — An executive of Metrobank falsified documents and violated procedures in defrauding one of the country’s lenders, the National Bureau of Investigation said on Friday.

The NBI said that Maria Victoria Lopez, the bank’s corporate services management head, falsified letters, issued checks to individuals who are not supposed to receive money and used questionable documents to defraud the bank of around P2.25 million, according to an internal inquiry by Metrobank.

“They discovered the anomaly when their employee discovered a falsified letter directing the bank to issue a manager’s check in favor of a payee. That is a red flag because the bank can’t issue a manager’s check to a payee rather to supposed to be to corporate clients only,” NBI agent Norman Aguirre said at a televised media conference.

Aguirre said that Lopez also used documents with different fonts and dubious signatures.

He said the bank immediately conducted an internal inquiry which led to the arrest of Lopez in Makati City on July 18 for facilitating the dubious transaction.

Lopez, who receives a monthly compensation of P250,000, tried to make it appear that the corporate client loaned P900 million and another P850 million.

The missing P2.25 million was supposed to be a loan payment until it was discovered that the loan was not made by corporate client which has a P25-billion credit line arrangement with the bank, NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin said.

“They discovered that such loans are unknown to the client,” Lavin added.

According to Aguirre, Lopez could act independently being the corporate services management head of the firm who handles valued clients.

“So upon her merely saying so, the bank can issue large loans from the credit line of P25 billion,” he said.

Lavin said that NBI Director Dante Gierran had already warned individuals who may be conspiring with bank insiders to cheat these institutions.

Metrobank, in a statement, assured its clients that no customer was affected by this incident, adding that bank transactions would continue considering its financial resources worth P1.9 trillion.

“The Bank is reinforcing its commitment to the highest standards of integrity and upholds the protection of its customers as its main priority,” it said.

This is the latest in a string of scandals that have hit the Philippine banking sector in the past two years.

In 2016, RCBC was fined a record P1 billion for allowing hackers to send $81 billion from Bangladesh’s foreign reserves to one of its branches in Makati City.

Then, the Bank of the Philippine Islands was hit by an internal error that prevented its customers from conducting online transactions.

BDO also admitted that some of its ATMs were “compromised” following a “skimming attack.”