A senior executive has been arrested for defrauding the Philippines' second-largest bank in a scandal that sent the institution's shares tumbling Friday, officials said. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co vice president Maria Victoria Lopez is suspected of stealing 1.75 billion pesos ($34.5 million) in loans from his employer, they added.
A trusted employee of the bank for 30 years, earning a monthly salary of 250,000 pesos, Lopez was arrested Tuesday while trying to move the stolen money to an unspecified personal account, National Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ferdinand Lavin told a press conference.
Lavin said the money was taken from the credit facility of one of its biggest corporate clients. "The biggest loser of this is the integrity of the banking system," said Lavin, who added the suspect would be charged with theft, violation of the banking law and falsification of documents.