Local financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies, securities and futures brokerages, and investment trusts, last year saw aggregate profits soar to their second-highest in history, despite headwinds faced by life insurers in the final two months of the year, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
Their combined pretax profit totaled NT$703.6 billion (US$22.58 billion), up 46.71 percent from NT$479.6 billion a year earlier, the commission’s data showed.
Financial institutions posted record profits of NT$935.55 billion in 2021, the data showed.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
Banks were the largest contributor to last year’s profit growth, reporting record pretax profits of NT$505.7 billion, up 17.03 percent from NT$432.1 billion in 2022, thanks to rising currency swap income, a capital market recovery, and double-digit percentage growth in fee income for wealth management and credit card businesses, the commission said.
Securities and futures brokerages and investment trusts followed with a combined pretax profit of NT$99.8 billion, a 50.98 percent increase from NT$66.1 billion the previous year, buoyed by a stock market boom, it said.
Insurance companies posted a lower-than-expected pretax profit of NT$98.1 billion for last year, as life insurers sustained foreign-exchange losses amid the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar in the November-to-December period, it said.
However, insurance companies’ bottom line last year improved greatly from the previous year, when they registered a combined loss of NT$18.6 billion, it said.
FSC Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) said he is optimistic about the sector’s prospects this year.
While the financial industry is resilient, companies should be cautious about market, credit and liquidity risks, as well as challenges from false information and corporate governance, he told a news conference in New Taipei City.
The commission, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, hopes financial institutions would further promote innovation and diversification in financial products without sacrificing financial stability, Huang said.
The FSC will assist the industry in upgrading and moving toward net zero carbon emissions and sustainable development, he added.
To improve odd-lot trading opportunities and efficiency on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) and the over-the-counter Taipei Exchange, the commission plans to shorten the matching interval of intraday odd-lot trading from one minute to five seconds by the end of this year, Securities and Futures Bureau Director-General Sam Chang (張振山) told the news conference.
The intraday odd-lot trading system was first implemented in October 2020 to attract small-capital investors.
The commission has requested that the TWSE and the Taipei Exchange revise odd-lot trading regulations and promote activities among securities firms and investors to achieve inclusive finance, Chang said.
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