Local banks had approved 5,056 loan applications totaling NT$81.6 billion (US$2.72 billion) for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as of Wednesday last week, surging from 510 applications totaling NT$7.39 billion two weeks earlier, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed yesterday.
Eighty-seven percent of the loans, or 4,177 applications for NT$71.7 billion, were provided by state-run banks, for an average of NT$17 million per application, the data showed.
Private banks lent NT$9.9 billion to 879 firms, for an average of NT$11 million per application, data showed.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“It seems that the government did not have a strong incentive to encourage private banks to help affected businesses,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei.
The approved loans represented a tiny fraction of the nation’s total lending of NT$6.9 trillion to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Tseng said.
The lending does not appear significant, as the government’s relief program aims to support SMEs, commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
The commission would review its incentives for private banks to approve more loans for businesses affected by the pandemic, Koo said, adding that the government would cover most risks.
The Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Fund of Taiwan offers credit guarantees of 80 to 90 percent, or even full guarantees, for small-scale firms, he said.
Separately, the FSC would not lift a ban on short selling on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange, even though the local equity market has recovered, Koo said.
The commission first needs to evaluate whether the pandemic has been brought under control in Europe and the US, as the local market is highly sensitive to foreign equity markets, he said.
The regulator announced the ban in the middle of last month to curb speculative trading amid “irrational declines” on the stock market.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The