The government yesterday unveiled incentives for private banks in the hopes that they would join state-run lenders in bailing out business affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A deposit that banks are required to make to hedge against bad debts has been lowered from 1 percent to 0.5 percent of total accounts receivable when a bank issues a loan to a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) by tapping a NT$200 billion (US$6.64 million) fund provided by the central bank, Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
That would allow the nation’s banks to save approximately NT$1 billion on such deposits, he said.
Photo: CNA
The commission has also set aside NT$180 million, or 2 percent, of a deposit insurance reserve fund to reward banks that help their clients secure loans from the central bank fund, Koo said.
The top three banks in number of loans issued, total amount of loans issued and fastest service on loans would have their deposit insurance premiums reduced, he said.
The money allocated for the rewards would likely be divided into portions of NT$90 million each, which would be tapped when banks are required to pay premiums in the second half of this and next year, he added.
In addition, processing fees for workers and small firms would be waived when they request loans from banks or are required to undergo credit history checks with the Joint Credit Information Center or the Taiwan Clearing House, Koo said.
This would save applicants about NT$300, he said.
As applications for subsidized loans available to workers and SMEs would be accepted until Dec. 31, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) was asked whether the preferential interest rates that accompany the packages would be canceled once they end.
If the pandemic does not abate after a prolonged period, the central bank would be able to double the fund to be loaned to workers and SMEs, Yang said, adding that he believes that the SME Credit Guarantee Fund of Taiwan, which offers loans of up to NT$150 million for SMEs, would be able to up the ante as well.
As of Monday, the nation’s eight state-owned banks had received 5,406 requests for loans from businesses and individuals, of which 3,300 requests totaling NT$40.2 billion had been granted, Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS