The domestic banking sector’s bad-loan ratio dropped to a new low of 0.46 percent at the end of last month, from 0.48 percent one month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement yesterday.
Of the 37 domestic lenders, 36 had a non-performing loan ratio below the 2 percent mark, the commission said in the statement.
The bad-loan ratio for Cosmos Bank Taiwan (萬泰銀行) remained relatively high at 5.65 percent. The ratio was attributed to a bad loan of NT$1.6 billion (US$55.11 million) to the cash-strapped Prince Motor Group (太子汽車) as part of its secured lending valued at NT$5.6 billion.
Prince Motor is the local sales agent of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp. The company’s chairman, Hsu Sheng-fa (許勝發), is also the founder and former chairman of Cosmos Bank, but relinquished control after selling a combined 80 percent stake in 2007.
As of July 31, the domestic banking sector’s bad loans totaled NT$96.9 billion, down NT$2.6 billion from a month earlier. Outstanding loans amounted to NT$20.87 trillion last month, up NT$164.7 billion from a month earlier, the commission’s data showed.
In related news, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday restated its first-half net income as NT$15.16 billion, compared with NT$17.42 billion it announced on Aug. 11.
The company said in an e-mailed statement that the discrepancy of NT$2.26 billion was because of lower retained earnings at its life insurance subsidiary, Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), as demanded by the commission.
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Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an