Taiwan’s non-performing loans dropped to 0.82 percent of total loans at the end of last month, indicating a further improvement in the quality of domestic lenders’ assets, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
The latest average bad loan ratio shed 0.05 percentage points from 0.87 percent a month earlier, with bad loans totaling NT$159.9 billion (US$5.1 billion), down NT$8 billion from the level on Aug. 31, the financial regulator said.
Only one of Taiwan’s 37 banks has a bad loan ratio higher than 2.5 percent, FSC data showed.
Total outstanding loans rose to NT$19.495 trillion, up NT$172.5 billion from a month earlier, signifying recovering financing activity, the FSC said.
The coverage ratio inched further up to 124.13 percent on Aug. 31, up 5.15 percentage points from a month earlier, the FSC said.
As of Aug. 31, the number of credit cards in circulation totaled 30.25 million, with revolving credit lending at approximately NT$185.9 billion, down NT$2.3 billion from a month earlier, according to FSC statistics.
Credit charges totaled NT$133.7 billion last month, rising NT$7.3 billion from a month earlier, a further sign of improving private consumption, it said.
In a related development, the financial regulator yesterday granted foreigners and overseas Taiwanese permission to buy Taiwan depository receipts (TDR), starting immediately.
FSC said the opening came in response to ongoing changes in the financial markets at home and abroad. The commission approved the issuance of TDRs in May 2008.
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
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FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six