UnionBank conducting ‘rigorous’ probe into reported P17M theft

UnionBank of the Philippines on Sunday said it is conducting a "rigorous" internal probe into the supposed theft of P17 million from the bank by one of its employees.

"To mitigate the situation, the Bank has already handed the case to the proper authorities for a more thorough investigation. Along with this, the bank is also conducting a rigorous internal probe to know the extent of the issue," it said in an emailed statement.

The statement comes a day after police operatives arrested Mariebel Osorio, a cash unit head at UnionBank's Ortigas branch who has been accused of stealing P17 million from the bank. She is now facing qualified theft charges.

According to initial reports, UnionBank Cash Services Group head Vincent Paul Castillo found that Osorio made an unauthorized cash transfer of P17,029,000 from the Ortigas Cash Center to the Caloocan Cash Center on Friday afternoon.

"UnionBank, during its routine checking, found out about a possible fraud incident involving one of its employees," it said Sunday.

"Importantly, this incident is not involved in any way with cyber security or cyber crime," it added.

UnionBank is the ninth largest bank in the Philippines in terms of total assets as of December 31, 2016, with total assets of more than P458 billion.

The bank ended 2016 with a P6.02-billion net income, down by 28.44 percent from the previous year's P8.42 billion. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News