AmCham names new president
The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei appointed its former chairwoman Andrea Wu (吳王小珍) as president yesterday, filling in the vacancy her predecessor Richard Vuylsteke left behind in February. Wu’s appointment will take effect on July 1, a press statement said.
“With her extensive management experience and in-depth understanding of the chamber’s mission and values, the board is confident that Andrea will be a great leader of the AmCham office team,” AmCham chairwoman Tung Tai-chin (童台琴) was quoted as saying.
Wu was promoted to be the first female AmCham chairman in 2004 after having served as its vice chairman between 2002 and 2003. She has been serving as the country manager of United Airlines, Taiwan since 2000. Prior to United Airlines, she was in the real estate development business in California and Taipei for over 10 years.
NPL ratio drops 0.04 percent
Local banks saw the average non-performing loan (NPL) ratio fall 0.04 percentage points month-on-month to 1.65 percent at the end of last month, indicating a continual improvement in the banking sector’s asset quality, the Financial Supervisory Commission’s latest data showed on Thursday.
Bad loans at the nation’s 38 banks totaled NT$296.4 billion (US$9.73 billion) at the end of last month, a decline of NT$5.6 billion from the previous month, the commission said in a statement.
Outstanding loans grew by NT$28.1 billion month-on-month to NT$17.95 trillion last month, the statement said.
The data showed that 35 of the 38 local banks saw their NPL ratios drop to below 5 percent last month, with 28 banks’ ratios being lower than 2.5 percent.
The commission said it would closely watch banks with high bad loan ratios, such as Chinfon Commercial Bank (慶豐銀行) which reported the highest NPL ratio at 26.24 percent at the end of last month, followed by Bowa Bank’s (寶華銀行) 9.66 percent.
Chinatrust rises after report
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控), the nation’s fourth-largest financial company by market value, rose the most in seven weeks in trading after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported Morgan Stanley will take a board seat.
Chinatrust advanced 2.7 percent to close at NT$31 in Taipei, the largest daily gain since April 11. Morgan Stanley will obtain one of Chinatrust’s seven board seats after the Taiwanese company’s June 13 shareholders meeting, the Taipei-based newspaper said, without citing anyone.
“We haven’t been informed Morgan Stanley plans to take a board seat,” Daniel Wu, chief investment officer of Chinatrust, who is on a visit to Hong Kong, said by telephone yesterday.
The New York-based firm has become the lender’s second-biggest shareholder with a 4.01 percent stake, after Chinatrust chairman Jeffrey Koo’s 7.29 percent, a faxed statement from Chinatrust said yesterday.
Inflows boost NT dollar
The NT dollar rose against its US counterpart yesterday, boosted by exporters’ strong purchases and foreign capital inflows, dealers said.
The local unit also gained support on speculation the central bank will use its appreciation to combat inflation, they said.
The NT dollar advanced NT$0.043, or 0.1 percent, to close at NT$30.413. Turnover was US$1.369 billion. For the week, the local currency rose 0.3 percent against the greenback.
Foreign fund managers bought a net NT$8.32 billion (US$274 million) in local shares for a second straight day.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
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