Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. said Tuesday it is confident any complaints filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council against its officials in connection with the $81-million money laundering scam will be dismissed.
The bank was responding to a statement by an AMLC official that the regulator was preparing to file cases within two weeks against other officials of RCBC to find the “missing link” and complete the facts of the scam.
RCBC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange that “no officer” in its head office had any knowledge and participation in the said scam that rocked the domestic banking industry in February this year.
“The bank concluded its own internal investigation several months ago and determined that no officer in head office had any knowledge, involvement or complicity that would warrant the filing of charges for money laundering against them,” RCBC said.
The bank said it had cooperated fully with AMLC throughout the latter’s investigation. It said it had yet to officially receive notice of AMLC’s actions.
“Should any complaint be filed, the concerned officers will file their respective answers and the bank is confident, given its own investigation, that the complaints will be dismissed on the merits,” RCBC said.
AMLC secretariat deputy director Vincent Salido said at the sidelines of a Senate hearing that there was still a “missing link” on the scam, although cases were filed earlier against RCBC Jupiter branch manager Maia Deguito, junket operator Kim Wong and officers of Philrem Service Corp.
“The facts wouldn’t be complete without them. Because the transactions went through them, the exchanges, the foreign exchanges went through RCBC. Without it, the resolution would be half-baked… We still seek clearance to the council. We’re still recommending [to file the cases],” Salido said.
Salido, however, did not say how many RCBC officials would be charged.
Senate investigations found out that the $81 million was stolen by cyber thieves from the account of Bank of Bangladesh in Federal Reserve in New York and entered the Philippine financial system through the RCBC branch on Jupiter Street in Makati City.
Former president and chief executive Lorenzo Tan resigned from his post at the height of Senate investigations. He was succeeded by Gil Buenaventura.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas imposed a P1-billion penalty on RCBC for its involvement in the scam. The fine is considered the biggest-ever imposed on erring financial institution under its supervision. RCBC already paid half of the amount a few weeks ago. The other half would be paid a year after.
Bangko Sentral, in imposing the fine, said this affirmed its strong commitment to ensure the stability of the financial system through strong and effective regulation of financial institutions.