SUMMATIVE REPORT

I. INTRODUCTION
On the recent ranking report made by the World Human Development, Philippines placed
106th out of 189 countries with a HDI value of 0.712, which historically claims that Philippines is
considered a third world country. Hence, is still claimed to be a developing country, which is expected to
rise among all the incompetence and corruption in the Philippine Society. As we are being entitled of the
numerous claims that we are not to be called a third world country but a developing country, means that
we are far from acquiring financial and economic stability here in the Philippines. Therefore, Philippines
has recently ranked from 113th to 88th out of 189 countries, which in statistics of corruption considers
ranking zero to be the most corrupt and, ranking one hundred and above are the very clean of corruption.
Which impose a big threat to the stability of our country when it comes to finance and economics.
The fact that I am starting this report with such facts, propose to add substance on this
massive fraud cases that accumulated large amounts of money laundering, and impudent fraud practices
that circulated among the Philippines financial sector, as well as the World. Year 2016 and 2017 was a
memorable year for the Filipino people especially for the Financial sector of the Philippines with this
controversial news that two of the leading banks in the Philippines are included in a tremendous scandal
of money laundering and fraud practices, these banks are RCBC or Rizal Commercial Banking
Corporation, and Metro Bank of the Philippines.

II. SUMMARY
Last July 12, 2018, a statement was published by 21st Century Asian Arms Race that
states:
“In 2016 another esteemed financial institution, the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation or RCBC, was
caught up in one of the most elaborate cybercrimes ever perpetrated in Asia. The bank came under fire when it
was found out millions of dollars stolen from Bangladesh’s own central bank was transferred to suspicious local
accounts in a specific RCBC branch. The manager of the branch immediately became a prime suspect as a vast
conspiracy took shape in the public eye.”

In 2017 the Philippines’ financial sector suffered from severe reputational risks as enormous internal
frauds were discovered by authorities. One of the biggest scandals involved Metrobank, a respected
institution with a heritage going back half a century, and an unscrupulous vice president. Over many
years, it turned out, the rogue VP was funneling loans to bogus accounts listed under a client’s name.
When the suspect was finally seized by authorities in a sting operation it was uncovered that she had
siphoned almost a billion pesos from the bank.
Now, to understand on how this happened, and who are responsible for these crimes.
Let me, in-detail report what went before.
RCBC’s Case
One weekend toward the beginning of February 2016, the devastated national bank of
Bangladesh discovered $81,001,662.12 missing from their record with their accounts from Federal
Reserve Bank of New York. The taken subsidizes discovered their way into a significant Philippine bank,
changed over into pesos by settlement organizations, and vanished in Manila's smoky gambling clubs.
Over four years after the fact, an amount of $15 million has been recuperated and just a single individual,

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 Maia Deguito, the director of the Jupiter Street, Makati part of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC),
has been sentenced. Heads of one of the settlement organizations embroiled in the heist, Philrem Service
Corp. the subject of various Suspicious Activity Reports recorded with U.S. monetary specialists, were as
of late prosecuted for illegal tax avoidance. Investigators, notwithstanding, cleared club trip
administrators Kam Sin Wong, leader of Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co., and Weikang Xu, for absence of
proof. The circumstance of the cyber heist was detailed. Nobody was aware of the situation, and
Bangladesh Bank was closed for the end of the week, and it was accordingly Chinese New Year in
Manila. Programmers were said to have conveyed malware and sent fake solicitations to the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York utilizing the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication) records of Bangladesh Bank workers, asking national bank assets to be moved to
ledgers in various Asian nations, including the Philippines, where the cash was washed. The exchanges,
worth over $1 billion, were in the long run stopped, yet not before $101 million were effectively moved,
of which $81 million went to the Philippines. The assets were moved into four records at the Jupiter
Street part of RCBC, an average sized moneylender. The records, under the names of Alfred Santos
Vergara, Michael Francisco Cruz, Enrico Teodoro Vasquez, and Jessie Lagrosas, were all invented
accounts, as indicated by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The records were opened in May 2015, a year
prior to the heist, and stayed torpid until the exchange in 2016. The Vergara, Cruz, Vasquez, and Lagrosas
accounts got $19.9 million, $6 million, $25 million, and $30 million, individually. On the latter, on
January 2019, Deguito, the RCBC branch manager, was found guilty of eight counts of money
laundering. While, on the same year of the heist, after being cleared by the investigation of the internal
team of RCBC, RCBC President & CEO Lorenzo Tan resigned from his position. In the end, of March
2020, RCBC’s charges were dismissed by the Federal Court of New York due insufficient proof of willful
participation to the heist.
Metro Bank’s case.
From a quiet, unbothered small rural town in Bulacan Philippines, resides the mastermind
of the biggest fraud cases in the Philippines, Maria Victoria Lopez. Accumulating a total of P900 Million
pesos, laundered illegally from her residing company, the Metro bank of the Philippines. Being the Vice
President of Metro Bank gave unwavering openings for here to commit such crimes. The Philippine’s
NBI or National Bureau of Investigation authorities introduced Maria Victoria Lopez, a VP at the
corporate administration’s unit of Metrobank's administrative center in Makati City, to journalists on
Friday evening, hours after the banks and monetary go-betweens board of trustees of the House of
Representatives reported an investigation into the extortion that hit the Philippines' second-biggest bank.
The suspect, Maria Victoria Lopez, was captured on July 18 after she supposedly endeavored to move
P2.25 million in interest from unapproved credits, authorities said. Lopez was introduced to columnists
wearing an orange prisoner's shirt and with her face wrapped with a cloak. The interest installment was
for one of 2 borrowings from a P25-billion pool. The bank's customer, which was approved to acquire
from the asset, denied executing the 2 credits worth P900 million and P850 million, authorities said. The
NBI did not name Metrobank, the nation's biggest loan specialist, which on Friday affirmed the capture of
a person for supposed misrepresentation. The bank's confirmation came after the Philippine Daily
Inquirer announced the case. Lopez worked for Metro bank for almost 3 decades, earning of 250,000
pesos per month, she was living above a moderate lifestyle, yet it was not enough. The Inquirer
discovered that Metrobank, claimed and constrained by George Ty, may have lost as much as P2.5 billion
after a bank VP supposedly channeled dispensed advances into imaginary records made for the sake of a
real customer, Universal Robina Corp. The assets in the phony records, constrained by the rebel official,
were then redirected electronically to different records in other monetary foundations and into the pockets
of the suspect. The Inquirer covered on a Friday that the cash in the phony records was redirected

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 electronically into different records in different banks and into the pocket of Lopez. Starting examination
indicated that Lopez made two separate advances—P900 and P850 million—from URC's P25-billion
credit line. It was later discovered that, the bank’s employees discovered that the letters were falsified,
and was directing the bank to issue a manager’s check for the favor of an individual payee. Lawyer Anire
Stated to the NBI. And so forth, Lawyer Anire insisted that the bank later discovered the heist after
noticing that one promissory note intended for the payment of interests was irregular, and it was decided
by the bank officials to verify the loans with URC and learned that there had been no such loan done by
the company. In the end, Lopez was obligated to pay P2.250 million of interest on the day of her
arrestment and return an outstanding P2.5 billion of money to respective banks, to cover her tracks.

III. Analysis
It was indeed a fact that not only the banks itself suffered from those cases, but their
investors, customers, staff, and beneficiaries were put in a crucial place. Base on my analysis, RCBC and
Metrobank underwent the same process of recovering from those scandalous cases. First, RCBC and
Metrobank conducted their own investigation on the claims of fraud and laundering, their own
independent company investigators handled the search for the truth. Second, both banks claimed their
innocence through the assistance of their own data base system, financial and managerial accounting
system. This is to impose that bank itself is independent from the criminals and has no intent to be part of
the heist. Lastly, both companies, through numerous implications and adaptation of accounting system,
can reduce the cost, and cover for their loss. Without affecting their investors and customers.

IV. Conclusion
These cases made me realized that our financial system and standards are from
perfection, it still has a large percentage of lapses and problems. The case of RCBC and Metrobank
proved that when money is on the line anyone can lose the screw and get crazy over it. No matter what
the standing of an employee be, whether from the bottom line or board of directors, if he/she is infected
with greed, temptations, and peers, the same thing will happen to any company in the Philippines. Hence,
we can conclude that the higher a company rise, the higher the risk goes. It is an eye opener to all
companies and institutions of the Philippines, to re-analyze, examine, asses, and improve their strategies,
system, and rules and regulation. No one is safe from such acts; crime has its own magic of uncertainty.
Company managers should not ignore small lapses within the company, specially when it comes to
internal funds. They must know how to assess Loyalty and Honesty, for it is a crucial component of
having an efficient and excellent working environment. Perhaps, a company must re-do their SWOT
analysis, for most companies tends to forget that one of their major threat and competitor is their own
temptation to fraud.
RCBC and Metrobank are not alone when it comes to fraud cases, they are just few of
those companies who are robbed by their own staff, and mostly from heist of notorious groups around the
world. Ms. Lopez would be a living statement that despite of having a descent and above average life,
when greed hits you, it will hit you hard. One thing or another, you will suffer. Most criminals are caught
due to private investigations, but most are gone free. Most of them lives and works on the highest
buildings in the world, some are in the shadows of the town stealing to survive, and the most especially
those who are seating in our National/Regional/Local Government. They all wear a mask that has this
fake Loyalty, Honesty, Perseverance, and Hard work, all to plot their biggest trick of all time. To fool the
public and live with a wealthy and untouched life.

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 Lastly, this story made me realize how important accounting information system is.
Through innovation and continuous change, soon accounting information system shall prosper in the
world. It shall provide an explicit data base that is free from lapses and failure. A System that is reliable,
accurate, and convenient for all users. It will not only be for the financial aspect of the company, but it
will help managers to assess and analyze data for future decision making that is substantial in the
profitability of the business in the long run. Who knows how far this course may take, and who knows
what accounting standards shall give birth that will change how accounting works for every kind of
institution?

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