The exposure of local banks to the US had dropped 3.08 percent as of the end of September from three months earlier as lenders cut deposits with US reserve banks, the first decline in six quarters, the central bank said yesterday.
The reduction outpaced a 2.55 percent drop in exposure to the other nine regions in the top 10 for Taiwan, with the amount for all 10 totaling US$395.47 billion as of the end of the third quarter, central bank data showed.
Local lenders are flexible about allocating US-dollar capital to leverage favorable interest rate environments and other factors, a central bank official said.
Photo: Clare Cheng, Taipei Times
Local banks had US$152.62 billion in US exposure as of Sept. 30, or 28 percent of the overall overseas risk, the data showed.
With the release of the third-quarter figures, the US has been the nation where local lenders have the most exposure for 33 consecutive quarters, the data showed.
China was next with exposure there falling 0.67 percent to US$46.17 billion from the second quarter, as Taiwanese refrained from investing in Chinese-based funds, the official said.
Risk in China was the lowest since the second quarter of 2020, they said.
Exposure to China is on a long-term decline, which is reflected in other data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission, as local lenders are cautious about the weak economy there, they said.
South Korea for the first time squeezed into the top 10 last quarter, outranking Singapore by a small margin, the official said.
Exposure in South Korea fell 1.03 percent to US$15.62 billion, with a 4.14 percent drop, or US$15.47 billion less, in Singapore the primary factor, they said.
Exposure to Hong Kong sank the most among the top 10, falling 8.24 percent to US$2.80 billion, the data showed.
A strong US dollar was also a factor behind reductions in local banks’ exposure to Japan and the UK of 2.14 percent and 3.19 percent respectively, the central bank said.
The yen and pound depreciated 3 percent and 3.87 percent respectively against the greenback in the third quarter, it said.
Australia was the only one of the top 10 to buck the downtrend, gaining 1.44 percent, the data showed.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media