The US remained the largest debtor nation to Taiwan’s banking sector for the 41st consecutive quarter at the end of September, after local banks’ exposure to the US market rose more than 2 percent from three months earlier, the central bank said.
Exposure to the US increased to US$198.896 billion, up US$4.026 billion, or 2.07 percent, from US$194.87 billion in the previous quarter, data released by the central bank showed on Friday.
Of the increase, about US$1.4 billion came from banks’ investments in securitized products and interbank loans in the US, while another US$2.6 billion stemmed from trust assets, including mutual funds, the central bank said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Luxembourg, known as a leader in providing global cross-border fund registration services, rose a spot to become the second largest debtor nation, with Taiwanese banks’ exposure increasing US$2.706 billion to US$50.767 billion, a record high, the central bank said.
China slipped one spot from a quarter earlier down to third-largest debtor nation, despite Taiwanese banks’ exposure growing US$1.065 billion to US$49.561 billion last quarter, central bank data showed.
While banks’ exposure to China increased 2.2 percent sequentially last quarter, their exposure to Luxembourg grew faster at 5.63 percent and lifted the European country’s ranking ahead from third to second place from the previous quarter, the central bank said.
The mild increase in Taiwanese banks’ exposure to China primarily reflected the market’s cautious sentiment toward China’s economic prospects, it said.
The Financial Supervisory Commission’s restrictions on Taiwanese banks’ investments and interbank loans in China led their exposure figure to range between US$40 billion and US$50 billion for quite a long time, it added.
The gap between Taiwanese banks’ exposure to the US and China widened further, reaching a fresh record of US$149.3 billion at the end of September, the central bank said.
The gap between banks’ exposure to the US and China has remained above the US$100 billion mark for 10 consecutive quarters after the figure first exceeded US$100 billion in June 2023, it added.
After the top three, Australia followed with US$42.137 billion and Japan with US$41.167 billion, up 4.76 percent and 10.5 percent from the previous quarter respectively, data showed.
Rounding out the top 10 debtor areas were Hong Kong with exposure of US$32.68 billion, the UK with US$23.195 billion, Singapore with US$20.617 billion, France with US$19.422 billion and Vietnam with US$17.579 billion, with sequential increases from 1.21 percent to 8.42 percent, the data showed.
Taiwanese banks’ exposure to the top 10 debtors totaled US$496.021 billion at the end of September, up 3.77 percent from the previous quarter and accounting for 73.95 percent of Taiwan’s total international claims of US$670.75 billion, which rose 3.48 percent from a quarter earlier due to an increase in lending to nonbank firms, the central bank said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
AI TALENT: No financial details were released about the deal, in which top Groq executives, including its CEO, would join Nvidia to help advance the technology Nvidia Corp has agreed to a licensing deal with artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Groq, furthering its investments in companies connected to the AI boom and gaining the right to add a new type of technology to its products. The world’s largest publicly traded company has paid for the right to use Groq’s technology and is to integrate its chip design into future products. Some of the start-up’s executives are leaving to join Nvidia to help with that effort, the companies said. Groq would continue as an independent company with a new chief executive, it said on Wednesday in a post on its Web
CHINA RIVAL: The chips are positioned to compete with Nvidia’s Hopper and Blackwell products and would enable clusters connecting more than 100,000 chips Moore Threads Technology Co (摩爾線程) introduced a new generation of chips aimed at reducing artificial intelligence (AI) developers’ dependence on Nvidia Corp’s hardware, just weeks after pulling off one of the most successful Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) in years. “These products will significantly enhance world-class computing speed and capabilities that all developers aspire to,” Moore Threads CEO Zhang Jianzhong (張建中), a former Nvidia executive, said on Saturday at a company event in Beijing. “We hope they can meet the needs of more developers in China so that you no longer need to wait for advanced foreign products.” Chinese chipmakers are in
POLICY REVERSAL: The decision to allow sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China came after years of tightening controls and has drawn objections among some Republicans US House Republicans are calling for arms-sale-style congressional oversight of artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports as US President Donald Trump’s administration moves to approve licenses for Nvidia Corp to ship its H200 processor to China. US Representative Brian Mast, the Republican chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which oversees export controls, on Friday introduced a bill dubbed the AI Overwatch Act that would require the US Congress to be notified of AI chips sales to adversaries. Any processors equal to or higher in capabilities than Nvidia’s H20 would be subject to oversight, the draft bill says. Lawmakers would have
RSS