The Philippine central bank said on Thursday it placed Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank under receivership, saying 97 percent of depositors were fully covered by deposit insurance of up to 500,000 pesos ($11,400), Reuters reported. The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation started to take over Banco Filipino's head office and branches on Thursday afternoon to secure records and documents, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on its website. A Banco Filipino official said the bank had deposits of 17 billion pesos ($387 million) and 62 branches nationwide.

National carrier Philippine Airlines, which has bled more than P15 billion ($337.6 million) in the past two fiscal years, is spinning-off its three non-core units as a last resort to avoid bankruptcy, Philstar.com reported. PAL will spin off the following units: in-flight catering services; airport services, including ground handling, cargo handling and ramp handling; and call center reservations by end of May. The move will enable PAL to save as much as P1 billion ($22.5 million) a year, PAL President and COO Jaime Bautista said in a press briefing today.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) placed the Apex Rural Bank (Bulacan), Inc. under receivership, the first one to be taken over by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. this year, BusinessWorld reported. "Notice is hereby given that the Monetary Board decided to prohibit the Apex Rural Bank from doing business in the Philippines and to place its assets and affairs under receivership," it said in a directive. The supervision and examination sector of the BSP, however, declined to disclose details on the Apex Rural Bank’s financial condition.