Local banks’ aggregate pretax profit fell for a third consecutive month in July, declining 3.6 percent annually to NT$31.99 billion (US$1.08 billion), as most lenders’ overseas branches were still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday.
However, the drop was smaller than the declines of 19.2 percent in June and 17.8 percent in May, the commission’s data showed.
In July, the combined pretax profit of banks’ overseas branches halved from a year earlier to NT$1.75 billion, due to lower interest income, volatile investment returns and higher loan-loss provisions amid the pandemic, the commission said.
For the first seven months of this year, the overseas branches’ cumulative pretax profit fell 47.2 percent year-on-year to NT$13.48 billion, the data showed.
The banks’ local businesses also saw their pretax profit dip 0.6 percent to NT$20.51 billion in July, resulting in a 14.4 percent decline to NT$117.6 billion for the January-to-July period, data showed.
Overall, Taiwanese banks’ pretax profit for the first seven months dropped 13.1 percent year-on-year to NT$196.41 billion, data showed.
As of the end of July, banks’ average non-performing loan ratio remained flat from a month earlier at 0.25 percent, the commission said.
Separately, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Monday reported a pretax loss of NT$21.3 billion for the first seven months, compared with a pretax profit of NT$33.1 billion a year earlier.
The state-run refiner attributed the results to falling crude oil prices early this year, although oil prices have stabilized in the past few months, CPC vice president Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said.
The collapse of international oil prices from January to May resulted in heavy cumulative losses for CPC, but it is not possible for the refiner to adjust domestic gasoline and diesel prices upward, because of the government’s promise to keep Taiwan’s prices the lowest in Asia, Fang said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Power Co (台電) reported pretax profit of NT$8 billion for the first seven months, up 128.3 percent year-on-year from a year earlier, while Taiwan Water Corp’s (台水) pretax profit totaled NT$122 million over the same period, up 79.4 percent year-on-year.
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