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IN December last year, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) expressed optimism over credit card prospects as people will likely be spending more on retail and travel.
In a news which appeared on the business page of major english dailies based in Manila, RCBC Credit Card president Arniel Vincent Ong said the bank expects a significant rise in spending particularly on toys, hobbies, electronics, clothing and department stores.
True enough, RCBC’s Credit Card business must be enjoying more than what they should be earning. Thanks to the POGO-like collecting agent which, according to a credit card holder who is being harassed to pay for something he didn’t spend.
According to businessman Enrico Sangcap, he is being pressed to pay for the supposed purchases he accumulated using his new RCBC credit card.
The problem is that he has not even activated it!!!
According to businessman Enrico Sangcap, he is being pressed to pay for the supposed purchases he accumulated using his new RCBC credit card. The problem is that he has not even activated it!!!
SCANDALOUS SCAM
If my memory serves me right, it was also RCBC which figured in a banking scandal for investment scam and money laundering.
Sometime in 2012, a top executive of the RCBC Securities was forced to go on leave after clients reported to have lost a significant amount of their savings and stocks in an investment scam.
The amount seems negligible for the family behind the RCBC. Oh yes, one billion is just a tip of the Yuchengco family’s treasure chest – but not for their clients who invested what could aptly be described as hard-earned money, only to be duped by a “trader” by the name of Mary Grace Valbuena.
Valbuena managed to manipulate for many years the Statement of Accounts (SOA) of her clients, transacting under their name without their consent, selling their stocks behind their backs, and depositing their checks to her brother’s account. By the end of it, Valbuena zeroed out portfolios of some of her clients, stealing their life savings.
Valbuena’s scandalous scam exploded in late December 2011 when she was dismissed.
On November 9, 2020, Valbuena was found guilty in violation of the bouncing checks law, BP22.
$81-M CYBER HEIST
In another instance, RCBC also took the center stage after their Makati branch bank manager Maia Santos-Deguito conspired with other individuals for facilitating the over-the-counter transactions of several accounts “despite such irregularity and knowing also that the said amount form part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity.”
The unauthorized activity involved the issuance by an unauthorized user of Bangladesh Bank Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications payment instructions to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Deguito appealed to the Court of Appeals First Division which outrightly denied to reverse her conviction for money laundering involving $81 million, considered as a cyber heist. The denial was issued on April 19, 2023.
There are many other scandals that rocked the Yuchengco-owned companies in the past, but the dubious collection from credit card holders who have not even activated their credit cards, stands out.
The scheme looks more like among the dubious activities under POGO!
Yes dapat matigil yan
Try researching more on the RCBC Securities case, and you’ll see that the accused trader was acquitted in several recent rulings due to the lack of evidence presented by RCBC. She was merely made a scapegoat by the bank.