By Eileen A. Mencias

Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. has shortlisted five external auditors to help in the processing of deposit claims from the 15 rural banks closed by the central bank closed inDecember.

PDIC president Jose Nograles said the company had asked SGV, Punongbayan and Araullo, Manabat, KPMG, and Isla Lipana to submit proposals for the processing of the deposit claims.

?We?re outsourcing the validation of claims to fast-track the processing of deposit claims. We?re hoping to choose one or two within the week or by early next week. Hopefully we can start paying out claims before Valentines? day for the 15 banks,? Nograles said. ?Our people are already overstretched that?s why we?re getting external help.?

PDIC has deployed over 400 of its staff on the field, representing about half of its total workforce. PDIC has some 810 employees, omprising 550 regular and 260 contractual workers. The deployment of a large number of its personnel on the field is beginning to impact on the normal operations of PDIC.

The central bank closed 15 rural banks associated with the Legacy group of companies in December. Nograles said the banks had 135,000 combined deposit accounts in 50 different locations against insured amounts of P14.4 billion.

The PDIC said it would pay all valid claims.