Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), under government investigation for misuse of funds, had a third straight quarterly loss in the fourth quarter after setting aside more money to cover bad loans.
The net loss for the quarter was NT$7.76 billion (US$237 million), compared with a profit of NT$2.06 billion a year earlier.
The fourth-quarter loss was derived by subtracting nine-month numbers from full-year figures released by the Taipei-based financial services company in a statement today.
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co which owns Taiwan's largest credit-card issuer, is making provisions to cope with rising debt defaults.
Banks in Taiwan more than doubled write-offs related to bad loans in the first 11 months of last year, according to the financial regulator.
The company boosted bad loan provisions to NT$48.13 billion last year from NT$13.17 billion a year earlier, it said today.
Before the provisions, Chinatrust's pretax profit last year was NT$31 billion.
The company has also been stung by a government probe into whether it misused funds in purchasing a stake in Mega Financial Holding Co (
The investigation has hindered Chinatrust's overseas expansion, Charles Lo (羅聯福), head of the banking arm, said on Oct. 25.
A month later, vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) resigned after prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest and was put on the most-wanted list on Dec. 4 after he didn't report to police.
Written off
Taiwanese credit-card issuers wrote off NT$108.3 billion in soured loans in the first 11 months of last year, up from NT$41.6 billion a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said last month.
Chinatrust president James Sheu (
Separately, Cathay Financial Holding Co (
Fourth-quarter loss at the Taipei-based company, which owns Taiwan's largest life insurer, was NT$2.11 billion, compared with a loss of NT$5.5 billion a year ago.
Cathay United Bank
Banking arm Cathay United Bank (
January-December profit was NT$10.96 billion, based on unaudited figures, compared with NT$21.8 billion in 2005.
The company must release a full and audited report by the end of April.
Today it provided only an income figure with no explanations.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (
Net income at the Taipei-based company, which owns the nation's largest non-life insurer, was NT$2.59 billion, compared with a loss of NT$1.96 billion in 2005 when banking unit Taipei Fubon Bank (
January-December profit was NT$8.23 billion, based on unaudited figures. That was 22 percent less than the NT$10.6 billion posted a year earlier.
China Development Financial Holding Corp (
Net income rose to NT$2.66 billion from NT$2.02 billion a year earlier. Full-year profit rose 45 percent to NT$15.2 billion, based on unaudited figures, the company said.
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