FSC to publicize names of bad debtors

The Financial Supervisory Com-mission yesterday announced that it would disclose the names of defaulters who owe more than NT$1 million (US$30,500) to the three banks that have been taken over by the government early next week.

That will mark the first time the government publicizes the names of bad debtors.

Article 11 of the Resolution Trust Committee Fund Regulatory Provisions (金融重建基金設置及管理條例), which was approved in June 2005, provides that authorities are obliged to publish the names of major debtors who owe a minimum of NT$1 million in bad loans.

"The commission will publish the names and the amount of money they have borrowed from Taitung Business Bank (台東企銀), the Enterprise Bank of Hualien (花蓮企銀) and The Chinese Bank (中華銀行) on the Internet, on Monday at the earliest," said the commission's acting spokesman Austin Chan (詹庭禎) during a press conference.

The commission is, however, still mulling whether to reveal the debtors' identification number as well, he added.

As the commission is still examining data from the three banks, it has yet to determine the number of account holders who have contributed to the massive amount of bad debts.

The three debt-ridden banks were taken over by the government over the past two months.