The volume of bad consumer loans has led to contraction in the nation's credit card market, with card numbers seeing negative growth for the first time in the last 15 years, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
As of last month, the number of credit cards in circulation shrank 0.33 percent from the previous month to 4.56 million cards. Meanwhile, revolving credit grew a marginal 0.67 percent month-on-month to NT$495.2 billion (US$14.95 billion), while the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio edged down 0.08 percentage points to 2.37 percent over the same time, according to statistics released by the FSC yesterday.
Credit card cancellations have outnumbered new cards issued for two months in succession by 687,415 to 604,570, according to the latest statistics.
The number of cash-advance cards in effect has decreased for five consecutive months and is now at 3.59 million cards, down 2.18 percent from October. The bad loan ratio, however, climbed by 0.45 percentage points to 2.28 percent, the statistics showed.
The NPL ratio of all 46 local banks declined to 2.61 percent last month, down from 2.81 percent in October.
The coverage ratio dropped to 40.63 percent, down from 41.17 percent the
previous month. The coverage balance decreased by 7.63 percent
month-on-month to NT$173 billion, which was mainly due to Chang Hwa
Commercial Bank's (彰化銀行) NT$10.9 billion of coverage balance losses
after it wrote off NT$34.9 billion of defaulted loans last month.
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LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
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