Taiwan’s non-performing loans dropped to a new low of 0.61 percent of total loans last month, from 0.7 percent in November, suggesting improvement in the quality of domestic lenders’ assets, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
Total bad loans amounted to NT$121.7 billion (US$4.15 billion) at the end of last month, falling NT$16.3 billion from NT$138 billion a month earlier, the commission’s report showed.
None of the 37 lenders had a bad loan ratio higher than 2 percent, the report said.
Overall, outstanding loans stood at NT$19.73 trillion, an increase of NT$330.2 billion from last November, as risk appetite recovered further, the report said.
The coverage ratio rose to 158.07 percent last month, gaining 16.53 percentage points over November, the report said.
As of Dec. 31, the number of credit cards in circulation totaled 30.71 million, while credit card charges rose by NT$10.4 billion to NT$146.3 billion, a separate report showed.
Chang Kuo-ming (張國銘), deputy director-general at the commission’s Banking Bureau, attributed the increase to price discounts and other promotion campaigns by department stores to boost sales ahead of the Lunar New Year.
Revolving credit lending approximated NT$181 billion last month, dropping NT$1.2 billion from a month earlier, the report said.
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