Lawmakers passed an amendment to the Banking Law (銀行法) yesterday requiring the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to take a more proactive approach in shutting down troubled banks.
In the past, the commission was not required to take action within a certain period of time against banks whose losses had exceeded one-third of their paid-in capital and to demand that they improve their financial structure.
The commission was therefore slow to take action to regulate troubled banks, as the non-mandatory "indefinite" period of time stipulated previously often led to long drawn-out negotiations, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Jih-Chu (李紀珠) said.
THREE-MONTH PERIOD
The amendment stipulates that the commission must issue an order calling for financial restructuring of troubled banks within three months of the banks reporting difficulties. Banks that fail to show an improvement after the grace period given by the commission could then be taken over by the government or forced to go out of business.
The commission will also be required to order banks that are too financially ill to liquidate or pay off their deposits to suspend all or part of their business and operations and undergo financial restructuring within a given period. The commission will have to supervise or take over the management of the banks, as well as request that the banks' management be restricted from leaving the country.
Under the old regulations, these requests and actions were optional and dependent on the commission's judgment.
In response to the passage of the amendment, the financial watchdog said it would closely monitor bank's business and financial conditions.
The commission has yet to determine the number of banks that would be affected by the new requirements, spokesperson Susan Chang (
EXIT MECHANISM
The commission is formulating a so-called exit mechanism for financially troubled lenders that would provide better supporting measures when it comes to shutting down troubled banks in the future, Chang said.
Legislation to that effect has not been submitted to the legislature for approval, she said.
Four financial institutions are blacklisted by the government's restructuring fund, including Bowa Bank (
"Their capital restructuring plans are proceeding as planned," Chang said.
She said the new amendment would not affect already financially troubled lenders.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last