Banks approved mortgages and construction loans at a slower pace last month, but it is unclear if the trend would continue or if it was due to fewer working days in the month, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
New mortgages expanded NT$26 billion (US$909.03 million) from January, compared with a monthly rise of NT$64.9 billion in January, while new construction loans grew NT$20.6 billion last month, compared with a monthly growth of NT$24 billion in the previous month, the commission told a news conference in New Taipei City.
Overall, mortgages and construction loans grew NT$46.5 billion month-on-month, a smaller increase than the more than NT$100 billion for some months last year, data showed.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, Bloomberg
On a yearly basis, new housing loans grew 9.22 percent last month, the lowest increase in four months, while new construction loans rose 12.55 percent, flat from a month earlier, data showed.
The ratio of non-performing loans for mortgages last month was 0.08 percent, while it was 0.05 percent for construction loans, data showed.
In addition to fewer working days last month because of the Lunar New Year and 228 Peace Memorial Day holidays, the central bank’s selective credit control measures and the commission’s financial examinations on banks’ mortgage practices also helped slow lending, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Lin Chih-chi (林志吉) said.
It is uncertain if the central bank last week raising its policy rates by 25 basis points would further cap the growth of mortgage and construction loans this month.
The commission last month raised the risk weighting for five types of mortgages and loans issued by local banks to as high as 200 percent, a measure aiming to rein in rising housing prices.
Current regulations cap a bank’s mortgages and construction loans at 30 percent of its deposits and bank debentures, meaning that a bank whose ratio is higher than 29 percent and another five banks with ratios between 28 and 29 percent are being monitored by the commission, Lin said.
Local banks’ average property loan-to-deposit ratio fell 0.1 percentage points month-on-month to 26.89 percent last month because of an increase in deposits, he added.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS