The US was the largest debtor nation to Taiwan-registered banks as of the end of December last year, the central bank said on Friday last week.
The US has maintained that position for 22 consecutive quarters, the central bank said, adding that US debt to Taiwanese banks increased by US$3.16 billion quarter-on-quarter to US$97.45 billion on a direct risk basis.
On an ultimate risk basis, which calculates a country’s consolidated debt after risk transfers, the exposure of local banks to the US rose to US$93.65 billion as of the end of December, up from US$89.90 million a quarter earlier, the central bank said.
Local banks’ exposure to China also continued to rise in the fourth quarter of last year on a direct risk basis, the central bank said, adding that China remained the banks’ second-largest debtor nation.
As of the end of December, the Taiwanese banking sector’s international claims on China totaled US$53.19 billion, up from US$49.81 billion the previous quarter and marking a third consecutive quarter of growth, it said.
The growth largely reflected the Chinese yuan’s appreciation against the US dollar, it added.
On an ultimate risk basis, Taiwanese banks’ exposure to China rose to US$70.77 billion, from US$69.11 billion at the end of September last year.
In terms of direct risk, the other major debtors to local banks were Luxembourg (US$43.02 billion), Japan (US$36.15 billion), Hong Kong (US$35.58 billion), Australia (US$26.96 billion), the Cayman Islands (US$19.03 billion), the UK (US$15.05 billion), Singapore (US$15.03 billion) and the West Indies region (US$12.08 billion), it said.
The local banking system’s aggregate international claims rose by 4.84 percent quarterly to US$484.0 billion on a direct risk basis, while its exposure to the top 10 debtor countries was US$353.5 billion, or 73.04 percent of the total, the central bank said.
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