The passage of the Financial Institutions Merger Act (FIMA) was delayed yesterday as the Ministry of Finance's (MOF) decision to scrap certain articles was said have met with opposition from lawmakers.
Although Minister of Finance Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章) did make a "respect paying" appearance in the legislature, the move was to no avail as the third reading of the legislation was postponed until Nov. 24.
New Party Lawmaker Hsieh Chi-ta (
The legislation, if passed during the third reading, will allow foreign firms to take majority stakes in local lenders and give regulators the power to force mergers among ailing financial institutions.
While Taiwan's banking industry survived the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, the island is widely seen as over-banked, and the government wants to clean up a scandal-ridden industry that's being hurt by rising loan defaults.
Public confidence in the island's banking industry has taken a battering amid a series of scandals implicating lenders.
Taiwan prosecutors, looking for evidence of fraud, raided Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰華商業銀行) in August, and in May the government seized Taiwan Development & Trust Corp amid a run on deposits.
Bad loans are also on the rise.
Rising non-performing loans could be "close to 10 percent" of all credits, compared to an official estimate of 5.4 percent at the end of September, Chen Shih-meng, a deputy governor at the Central Bank of China (中央銀行), said last week.
The legislation provides for authorities to license asset management companies to buy bad loans from lenders, and then recover collateral, backing the overdue credits without first having to win court approval.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique