The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has asked banks to expedite the review and processing of loans of less than NT$5 million (US$165,827) to help companies affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Banks should decide whether to approve such loans within 15 working days, the FSC said, adding that it could further reduce the review period to within seven days for loans under NT$1 million.
“Banks usually have a set of procedures for arriving at a decision, such as interviews with applicants, credit checks, collateral appraisal and on-site examination,” a commission official said by phone.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“We are not asking them to skip any steps as they still need to monitor loan quality. However, we hope they can make a decision faster on whether to approve or reject a loan to lessen the pressure on borrowers,” the official said.
The commission, which last month asked all banks to provide loan extensions for businesses hit by the pandemic, ordered banks to approve the extension within two weeks, but left it to banks to decide on the duration of the extension and the interest rate.
As of Monday, local banks have received 2,322 applications totaling NT$35.18 billion from affected businesses, and approved 510 applications, or a total of NT$7.39 billion in loans, commission data showed.
To provide an incentive, the commission would reward banks that offer the most assistance to affected firms by allowing them to launch new programs or products in the future.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) yesterday said that the measure might not be helpful to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Among the nation’s 1.46 SMEs, 89 percent, or 1.3 million, have never applied for credit, Tseng told a meeting at the Legislative Yuan.
“The interest rate for loans of less than NT$2 million is just 1 percent, which should be attractive to borrowers. We can help enterprises that have never applied for a bank loan,” FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
Compared with the state-run banks, privately owned banks have offered less help, approving 117 applications or NT$2.78 billion in loans, accounting for 23 percent and 37 percent respectively of the total, commission data showed.
“It is not that we are less willing to help affected businesses, but as a private company, we have to scrutinize loan applications, as we are under more pressure if our non-performing loan ratio rises,” a bank manager said by phone on condition of anonymity.
If the government eases its regulations on non-performing loan ratios, such as allowing banks to write off bad debts later, banks would be less conservative, he said.
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
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
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
RSS