Despite a minor deposit loss yesterday, Sunny Bank (陽信商銀) said it faced no imminent liquidity risk, after prosecutors requested on Tuesday that the lender's chairman, his spouse and some executives suspected of embezzlement be detained.
A court ordered yesterday evening that chairman Chen Shen-hung (陳勝宏) and his wife, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌), be released on bail of NT$10 million (US$305 million) each.
"Rumors hurt," Sunny Bank spokesman Kenny Lu (呂沛霖) said in a telephone interview yesterday. "We saw withdrawals of between NT$2 billion to NT$3 billion yesterday alone, compared with an average of NT$1 billion per day."
Aside from the large withdrawals, operations at the bank were normal yesterday, with no liquidity risk. the bank prepared as much as NT$30 billion in cash to cover further withdrawals, Lu said.
Chen and Hsueh are suspected of embezzling NT$600 million.
Sunny Bank denied the accusations, saying that Chen and his wife did not have any outstanding debts and had paid off all their loans.
Outstanding lending to the other board directors and management totals NT$3.1 billion, with full pledges, Lu said.
In response, the Financial Supervisory Commission said it would launch a probe if necessary and impose punitive measures if irregularities were found.
"We are closely monitoring any negative effect and loss of savings," commission spokesperson Susan Chang (張秀蓮) said by telephone. "The bank is financially sound and we hope the depositors will not get jittery."
As of last month, Sunny Bank had recorded profits of NT$389 billion with a bad loan ratio of 2.67 percent and a coverage ratio of 43.4 percent.
The bank's capital adequacy ratio -- used to determine the capital sufficiency of a bank -- was 8.76 percent at the end of last year, official data showed.
The crisis was not expected to harm the lender's plan to attract a foreign investor by the end of this year, which it hopes will help improve its know-how in wealth management and overseas expansion.
"We are in talks with more than three overseas banks for the sale of a 30 percent stake," Lu said.
The bank, which operates 96 branches across the nation, is not considering a full sale at the moment, he said.
Morgan Stanley advises the lender for the share sale.
Lu said the Sunny Bank hopes to make its debut in the local stock exchange next year after it postponed an initial public offering plan by the end of this year due to weakened profitability amid the industry-wide consumer credit abuse problem.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS