Mortgages controlled by domestic banks rose NT$62.8 billion (US$2.22 billion) from a month earlier to NT$8.8 trillion at the end of January, the smallest increase in six months, the Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday.
From August to December last year, monthly increases ranged between NT$65 billion and NT$91 billion, commission data showed.
The commission attributed the slowdown to the central bank’s implementation of selective credit controls in December last year.
Mortgage growth did not slow that month, as the central bank allowed lenders to comply with previous loan-to-value requirements for mortgages approved before Dec. 8, it said.
January was the first month that fully reflected the effects of the credit controls, it said.
The new measures include capping the loan-to-value ratio at 60 percent for housing loans granted to corporate buyers for their first property and at 50 percent for their second, while the limit on the ratio for an individuals’ third property is 60 percent.
Non-performing housing loans totaled NT$9.7 billion at the end of January, down from NT$9.8 billion a month earlier, while the non-performing ratio remained flat at 0.12 percent, the data showed.
The commission said that by the end of this month it would complete a special examination of the nation’s top 10 lenders to determine whether they are exercising solid risk management.
Construction loans by local banks, which indicate confidence in the construction sector, grew at a slower pace in January, expanding by NT$40.7 billion from a month earlier, the smallest gain over the past three months, the data showed.
Non-performing construction loans fell from NT$4.2 billion a month earlier to NT$4.1 billion at the end of January, while the non-performing loan ratio was flat at 0.15 percent, the data showed.
The ratio has fallen from a 27-month high of 0.23 percent in October last year as state-run Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) has written off a bad loan of NT$3.27 billion to a construction firm operated by former Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (遠東航空) chairman Chang Kang-wei (張綱維), the commission said.
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