Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank v. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, G.R. No. 200678, 04 June 2018

 

    A closed bank under receivership can only sue or be sued through its receiver, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC). Under R.A. 7653, when the Monetary Board finds a. bank insolvent it may “summarily and without need for prior hearing forbid the institution from doing business in the Philippines and designate PDIC as receiver of the banking institution. The relationship between a closed bank, in this case, Banco Filipino, and the PDIC is fiduciary in nature. Section 30 of R.A. 7653 directs the receiver of a closed bank to “immediately gather and take charge of all the assets and liabilities of the institution.”

Considering that the receiver has the power to take charge of ALL the assets of the closed bank and to institute for or defend any action against it, only the receiver, in its fiduciary capacity, may sue and be sued on behalf of the closed bank. When the petitioner was placed under receivership, the power of its Board of Directors and its officers were suspended. Thus, its Board of Directors could not have validly authorized its Executive Vice Presidents to file the suit on its behalf. Considering that the petition was filed by signatories who were not validly authorized to do so, the petition does not produce any legal effect. Being unauthorized to do so, the Supreme Court never validly acquired jurisdiction over the case. The petition, therefore, must be dismissed.