A Philippine representative has welcomed the decision of the state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp (PDIC) to double the maximum deposit insurance coverage (MDIC) for bank depositors from P500,000 to P1 million, effective March 15.
“The 100% increase in the MDIC to P1 million per depositor per bank is long overdue,” Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr said.
“There’s no doubt that the P1-million MDIC will help strengthen public confidence in our banking system, which plays a vital role in driving the country’s economic growth and jobs creation,” he added.
Campos was the first member of Congress to push for the P1-million MDIC, emphasizing the need to restore its full protective value at today’s prices and encourage Filipinos to continue keeping their money in banks.
“Based on cumulative inflation data, the purchasing power of P1 million today is more or less equal to the buying power of P500,000 in 2009, or 16 years ago,” Campos noted.
The MDIC was last increased in 2009, from P250,000 to P500,000.
Since its initial implementation in 1963 at the amount of P10,000, the MDIC has been raised several times: P15,000 (1978); P40,000 (1984); P100,000 (1992); P250,000 (2004); P500,000 (2009); P1 million (effective March 15, 2025).
“This is the first time the PDIC has exercised its authority to increase the MDIC,” Campos pointed out.
He explained that Congress had been periodically increasing the MDIC since 1963, until it passed Republic Act No. 11840, or the new PDIC charter, in 2022. The new law granted the PDIC’s governing board the authority to increase the MDIC.
In 2024, the PDIC paid P281.5 million in deposit insurance claims, benefiting 7,482 depositors of three distressed rural and cooperative banks that had been shut down by regulators. (Story courtesy of the Philippine House of Representatives)
Above image generated by Gemini Advanced