The management committee for a NT$140 billion (US$4 billion) financial restructuring fund will be established officially today so that the administration can clean-up a number of problematic banks.
The Legislative Yuan passed regulations to establish a resolution trust corporation, similar to the US Resolution Trust Co (RTC) of the 1980s, during a special session in late June to help clean up bad loans at local grassroots financial institutions.
From 1989 to 1996, the RTC administered federal savings and loan institutes that went insolvent between 1989 and 1992 by either bailing them out or merging them.
As for Taiwan, over the next three to four years the financial restructuring fund is expected to benefit beleaguered financial institutions with negative net worth or other operational problems.
High on the priority list are agricultural and fishermen's credit cooperatives with higher-than-average non-performing loan ratios. According to the initial plan made up by Central Depository Insurance Co (中央存保), the first wave of problematic institutions targeted for disposition are 15 to 18 credit cooperatives located in central and southern counties, which have a negative net worth.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the overdue loan ratios of domestic grass-roots financial institutions is currently at 17 percent, with bad loans totalling some NT$210 billion. The clean-up plan will start in the final 10 days of July, and be completed in three months, the ministry said.
The major source of money for the financial restructuring fund will come from a 2 percent business tax on financial institutions over the next four years.
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