As of the end of November last year, loans extended by offshore banking units (OBUs) of banks operating in Taiwan hit a fresh high, the central bank said on Saturday. The loans totaled US$81.81 billion, up from US$81.73 billion recorded as of the end of October last year, the bank said, adding that after lending by the OBUs surpassed the US$80 billion mark in September last year to hit US$80.69 billion, their loans continued to grow.
The number of OBUs as of the end of November reached 63. They were operated by 38 locally incorporated banks and 25 foreign banks. The 38 Taiwan-registered banks included Citibank Taiwan, Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan and DBS Bank Taiwan (星展銀行).
The central bank said the OBUs’ loans were almost all extended to overseas clients, who made up 99.9 percent of the total lending.
The overseas lending was comprised of US$45.73 billion in long and medium term loans and US$35.99 billion in short term loans. Lending extended to local clients reached only US$83 million or 0.1 percent of the total loans, the bank said.
As of the end of November, the total assets of the 63 OBUs rose 2.1 percent from a month earlier to a new high of US$163.68 billion, and the 38 local banks’ OBUs accounted for 84.6 percent of the total assets, the central bank said.
These OBUs’ lending made up about 50 percent of their total assets with interbank lending and deposits representing 14.6 percent. Securities investments accounted for an additional 13.9 percent, the central bank said.
Asia was the largest fund destination of the OBUs, accounting for 61 percent of the OBUs’ fund use, followed by the Americas with 26 percent and Europe with 6 percent, the central bank said.
In November, foreign exchange trading of the OBUs totaled 38.29 billion, including US$23.13 billion in spot trading, US$7.83 billion in forwards trading and US$7.34 billion in swaps, the bank said.
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