Exposure to China among Taiwanese financial institutions — including banks, insurance companies, securities and futures brokerages, and investment trusts — reached a record-low NT$876.95 billion (US$29.71 billion) at the end of April, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed on Sunday.
Their exposure was down NT$165.75 billion, or 15.89 percent, from a year earlier amid concerns over a slowing Chinese economy, rising local government debts and a multiyear real-estate crisis, as well as persisting geopolitical risks, the commission said.
In terms of declines in total exposure, the banking sector experienced the largest drop, as Taiwanese banks cut their combined exposure — including lending, investments, and interbank loans and deposits — by NT$145.27 billion, or 15.16 percent, to NT$813.2 billion from a year earlier, the data showed.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwanese banks scaled back lending to the Chinese market by a combined NT$99.87 billion from a year earlier and decreased investments by NT$20.83 billion and interbank loans by NT$24.57 billion over the same period, it showed.
The sector’s exposure to China has declined for seven consecutive years since the US-China trade dispute started in 2018.
As of the end of April, local banks’ exposure accounted for 17.2 percent of the sector’s net worth, the lowest level since the data became available in the third quarter of 2013, the commission said.
Taiwanese insurance companies’ investments in marketable securities in China fell NT$20.9 billion, or 29 percent, from a year earlier to NT$52.4 billion at the end of April, accounting for only 0.16 percent of the sector’s total disposable funds, it said.
The sector’s investments in Chinese securities were all made by life insurers, while property and casualty insurers have held no securities in China since January 2023, it said.
Meanwhile, the combined exposure to China of Taiwanese securities and futures brokerages, as well as securities investment trust and consulting firms rose NT$457 million, or 4.2 percent annually, to NT$11.35 billion at the end of April, accounting for 1.39 percent of the sector’s net worth, the data showed.
The sector’s expanded exposure to China reflected that securities firms’ proprietary finance units slightly increased investments in short-term debt holdings, the commission said.
TECH TITAN: Pandemic-era demand for semiconductors turbocharged the nation’s GDP per capita to surpass South Korea’s, but it still remains half that of Singapore Taiwan is set to surpass South Korea this year in terms of wealth for the first time in more than two decades, marking a shift in Asia’s economic ranks made possible by the ascent of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). According to the latest forecasts released on Thursday by the central bank, Taiwan’s GDP is expected to expand 4.55 percent this year, a further upward revision from the 4.45 percent estimate made by the statistics bureau last month. The growth trajectory puts Taiwan on track to exceed South Korea’s GDP per capita — a key measure of living standards — a
Samsung Electronics Co shares jumped 4.47 percent yesterday after reports it has won approval from Nvidia Corp for the use of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which marks a breakthrough for the South Korean technology leader. The stock closed at 83,500 won in Seoul, the highest since July 31 last year. Yesterday’s gain comes after local media, including the Korea Economic Daily, reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek (深度求索), and finally allows Samsung
READY TO HELP: Should TSMC require assistance, the government would fully cooperate in helping to speed up the establishment of the Chiayi plant, an official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its investment plans in Taiwan are “unchanged” amid speculation that the chipmaker might have suspended construction work on its second chip packaging plant in Chiayi County and plans to move equipment arranged for the plant to the US. The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier yesterday that TSMC had halted the construction of the chip packaging plant, which was scheduled to be completed next year and begin mass production in 2028. TSMC did not directly address whether construction of the plant had halted, but said its investment plans in Taiwan remain “unchanged.” The chipmaker started
‘COMPLEMENTARY’: The company unveiled its new Dimensity 9500 smartphone chip, which would power Vivo’s X300 series, set to launch in Taiwan in November MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s largest handset chip designer, yesterday said its strategic collaboration with Nvidia Corp is on track and expected to bear fruit within two to three years, easing concerns over Nvidia’s newly announced partnership with Intel Corp to develop PC chips. MediaTek shares fell 2.43 percent to NT$1,405, underperforming the TAIEX’s 1.18 percent gain, as investors worried that Nvidia’s work with Intel might overshadow its joint PC-chip projects with MediaTek based on Arm Holdings PLC’s architecture. “We are quite complementary to one another in terms of product and technology,” MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told reporters during the launch
RSS