In response to a proposal made by five major business groups, the Bankers Association of the ROC (
"Our Thursday meeting concluded that the mechanism, which is due to expire in January, will remain active for one more year," an association official, who requested anonymity, said yesterday.
The mechanism allows member banks to make their own decisions on whether they will extend loans -- due to be repaid this month -- until next year.
However, the association rejected a proposal, also made by five major business groups, to mandate that banks allow rollovers, the official said.
According to the official, the optional rollover proposal passed Thursday by a 23-17 vote. Those supporting the proposal argued that many enterprises in traditional industries will still be in need of capital even in the event of an economic recovery.
Through the negotiation mechanism, nearly 70 loan rollovers have been granted over the past three years to businesses whose loans are still performing, the official said.
In accordance with the mechanism's rules, businesses that are having difficulty repaying bank debt will be entitled to call for a meeting with banks participating in syndicated loans to discuss terms of a loan rollover.
The association also revised its rules concerning voting procedures on rollover decisions. Previously, meetings on rollovers required a quorum of two-thirds of the banks participating in a given syndicated loan. Rollovers had to be approved by three-fourths of banks attending the meetings. The association yesterday simplified the rules, which now merely require consent from more than half of the banks attending a meeting, the official said.
The rollover mechanism has existed for over three years.
Hsu Chen-ming (
"These debts are considered loans under observation, which are very likely to go into default eventually," Hsu said, saying that the practice has put extra burdens on the nation's banking sector and has hindered efforts at financial reform.
Taiwanese lenders wrote off a combined NT$413.9 billion (US$11.9 billion) of bad debts last year as they accelerated the process of cleaning up their books by removing non-performing loans from their balance sheets. The percentage of bad loans in the banking sector fell to 7.87 percent as of Sept. 30, from 7.97 percent at the end of June.
At the end of September, about NT$1.12 trillion (US$32.9 billion) of loans were classified by the nation's central bank as non-performing and under surveillance. That compares with NT$1.13 trillion at the end of June.
Hsu also said that distressed businesses should be encouraged to undertake restructuring to turn performance around, and should not be granted loan rollovers.
"Measures such as takeovers, board and management reshuffles and streamlining will be effective in helping improve businesses, not loan rollovers," Hsu said.
Hsu sat on the board that oversaw the rollover mechanism when former president Lee Teng-hui (
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS