KMT legislator Chu Li-rin (
The plan was deemed acceptable by Vice Minister of Finance Sean Chen (陳沖), who said at the Legislative Yuan yesterday that NT$140 billion should be sufficient capital to absorb actual losses at troubled domestic banks.
According to the KMT proposal, NT$20 billion would be generated from increased rates charged to banks for backing from the Central Depository Insurance Co (CDIC,
The other NT$120 billion would come from business tax revenues from the financial services sector over the next four years.
Chu floated the RTC proposal during a CDIC regulation review meeting held at the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
"This [KMT's] version is expected to pass in mid-April, and will start operation in July," Chu said yesterday at the Legislative Yuan.
According to KMT's proposal, an RTC mechanism would be enacted with a single law and operate for a period of five years. After the RTC is dissolved, any problematic financial institutions would be handled by the CDIC.
Three kinds of problematic financial institutions would be dealt with by the RTC over the next five years, including financial institutions with a negative net worth, problematic banks with serious overdue loan ratios and financial institutions categorized by authorities as problematic.
After the RTC starts operations in July, according to the KMT's plan, it would issue financial bonds totalling NT$140 billion. The bonds would be paid back with tax and premium revenue from the CDIC.
In response to questions by legislators as to whether there would be sufficient capital, the finance ministry's Chen said, "Based on actual losses at domestic financial institutions, NT$140 billion is enough to take care of them. But from the cash flow and liquidity of the RTC, NT$140 billion is still not enough."
Overdue loans for the nation's banking sector are estimated by the finance ministry to total NT$1 trillion.
"The purpose of setting up an RTC would be to dispose of financial institutions with a negative net worth as a priority," Chen said. "It's not aimed at rescuing stock investors or stockholders, but to rescue depositors."
As to how many credit cooperatives currently have a negative net worth, Chen said some 10 percent of grassroot financial institutions are in the red.
"Currently, 15 credit cooperatives have a negative net worth," Chen said.
"However, if we take all overdue loans to be categorized as bad loans, I estimate that there would be about 30 credit cooperatives with a negative net worth, or about 10 percent of a total of 307 credit cooperatives," Chen said.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has recently said problematic credit cooperatives should be the first ones to be taken care of when confronting bad and non-performing loans at financial institutions.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”