FICCO Mutual Benefit Association (MBA) was based in Cagayan de Oro City. It was organized by members of the First Community Cooperative (Ficco) to extend financial assistance to its members, their spouse, children and parents in the form of death benefits, provident savings and loan redemption assistance. The MBA was incorporated on August 23, 2007, and obtained its IC Certificate of Authority on November 8, 2007.
In Ficco MBA General Assembly Resolution 01-2014, 01-2015, 01-2017, it resolved to dissolve the organization with an affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members with the intention of merging with the Cooperative Insurance Society of the Philippines. The membership General Assembly actually voted unanimously. Its Board of Trustees furthermore approved a resolution to cease its operation by June 30, 2015, and that no more contributions or premiums payments shall be accepted from its member thereafter. What is peculiar with this merger is that CISP is not an MBA but rather a cooperative insurer. This is the first of its kind where a MBA has merged with a cooperative insurer.
A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed between the Cooperative Insurance System of the Philippines, Ficco and the First Community Cooperative-Mutual Benefit Association Inc. As agreed upon, CISP will continue to provide similar insurance services previously provided by Ficco MBA to its members.
Under this MOA, all of the assets, liabilities and equity accounts of Ficco MBA as of June 30, 2015, will be transferred to CISP. The Members’ Equity Value, Accumulated Retained Earnings and Guaranty Fund will be invested with CISP. Under the agreement, CISP preferred shares will be issued in the name of the individual members in exchange for the Members’ Equity Value, representing 50 percent of the premium contributions of the members. The Accumulated Retained Earnings and the Guaranty Fund will be invested in exchange for CISP common shares, which will be issued in the name of the Ficco Cooperative instead of the individual members.
All the investments made by Ficco MBA will be denominated as Ficco 2 investment with CISP in order to distinguish it from the original investment made by Ficco Cooperative with CISP, which will be denominated as Ficco 1. Finally, members that wish to withdraw will be entitled to the book value of their investments subject to Article 30 of Republic Act 9520, otherwise known as the Cooperative Code, on the termination of cooperative membership. The dissolution of Ficco MBA was approved by the Insurance Commission on December 10, 2018.
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Dennis B. Funa is the current insurance commissioner. Funa was appointed by President Duterte as the new insurance commissioner in December 2016. E-mail: dennisfuna@yahoo.com.