The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Philippine central bank, has padlocked a Makati-based bank named Bankwise Inc. and put it under receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.
This article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer explains why.
Many times, I have received emails from people who read INQUIRER.net, who say that it is all right to put money in a high-earning savings instrument from a small bank because deposits are insured up to P250,000. That’s foolish reasoning.
I have seen ordinary people get hurt by bank closures, and no amount of deposit insurance helped them deal with their problems. Claiming insurance does not happen overnight. It takes quite some time, although the PDIC has already shortened the process significantly.
The first line of defense against losing your deposits should be to know your bank well. If it’s a commercial bank, you should have an idea about its deposit base and its owners. If its a small rural bank in your area, you should know more than where it stands and which teller handles which area at noontime. Find out who are its owners and what are their track records.
It also happens that banks with reputable owners and board of directors may still close shop. But there are other signs of banks that are in trouble. A red-hot warning sign are abnormally high interest paid out on deposits.
When a bank is willing to pay interest that are suspiciously high, that means it is in grave need of cash to address whatever financial bleeding it is suffering from. I know it can be tempting, but greed can cause trouble!
A conversation with Money Makeover financial planner Joe Ferreria the other day went like this:
My friend said he knew that it is not good to put all your eggs in different baskets, so he deposited his money in different banks — the BPI branch in Binondo, the branch in Makati, and another branch in Quezon City.
Seriously… 
Accounts under one name, even in different branches and different kinds of deposit accounts will be treated as one account and insured only up to P250,000. The PDIC website gives illustrative cases for joint accounts, in trust for accounts, and/or accounts. Very easy to understand and very clearly illustrated. Click here.
Remember, banking is all about trust, more than convenience. Stay away from all those red flags and don’t diversify across branches! 
February 10th, 2008 at 1:27 am
oh no, this truly sucks! i was hoping that many new banks have already learned their lessons from previous foreclosures
i feel for those individuals who trusted Bankwise and are now facing possible loss of their hard-earned money 
February 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I don’t like banks very much. It gives me headache all the time. I try to get away from them as much as I could..