DBP asked to explain ‘wash sales’

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MANILA — The Development Bank of the Philippines has been asked to explain its “wash sales” transaction last year.

The Governance Commission for Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG), a group tasked to monitor the performance of state-run corporations sought the DBP’s statement over the issue.

GCG spokesperson Bea Nadine V. Barte said that they have reached out to seek for DBP’s comments on the issue.

The controversial transactions resulted in P712 million in losses to the state-owned bank.

DBP has earlier issued a statement claiming that the transactions were “legitimate” and were done to limit the bank’s financial loses as the global market prices were falling.

“If a GOCC is suspected to be erring, we study the issue and make a recommendation to the President on the action that may be taken. Penalization depends on the concerned agency, which has jurisdiction over the GOCC and/or the issue,” she said.

The group is tasked to “evaluate the performance and determine the relevance of a GOCC to ascertain whether such GOCC should be reorganized, merged, streamlined, abolished, or privatized.”

Barte, meanwhile clarified that the investigation on the said issue is under the jurisdiction of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Securities Exchange Commission.