Despite the plunge in Asian financial stocks this week on concerns over exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Asian banks will have limited risk from their holdings of securities issued by the US mortgage firms, Moody’s Investors Service said yesterday.
“While some regional banks and insurers hold substantial amounts of paper issued or guaranteed by either of the two institutions, the risk of interim mark-to-market income statement losses is low and of actual principal or interest payment loss miniscule,” Deborah Schuler, a Moody’s senior vice president, said in a statement yesterday.
“In addition, possible foreign exchange-driven losses, given the decline in the US dollar and the fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities are US dollar-denominated, are mitigated by offsetting exposures at the banks,” she said.
Schuler’s statement came as the ratings agency released its latest report, Fannie and Freddie Threat to Asian Banks and Insurers Exaggerated.
The report follows a drop in investor confidence amid concerns that the problems at the two US companies could delay the recovery of the financial sector.
In Taiwan, the main bourse’s finance and insurance sub-index fell 7.82 percent this week, compared with a drop of 5.93 percent on the benchmark TAIEX.
With the exception of Australian and South Korean banks, Schuler said, most banks and insurance companies in the Asia-Pacific region are both liquid and sufficiently capitalized to cope with any loss-making investment securities.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary