Bank loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) rose NT$56.2 billion (US$1.79 billion) in November last year, the third-highest increase of the year, data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) showed yesterday.
As of November, aggregated SME loans totaled NT$9.69 trillion, accounting for 65.15 percent of all bank-issued corporate loans, with a 0.24 percent nonperforming loan ratio, flat from a month earlier, commission data showed.
In the first 11 months of last year, banks boosted SME loans by NT$406.4 billion, exceeding the commission’s NT$380 billion goal by nearly 7 percent, it said.
Photo: An Rong Xu, Bloomberg
The annual increase in SME loans met the commission’s target every year for the past 16 years, except for during the 2008 global financial crisis, commission data showed.
Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) recorded the largest increase in SME loans during the 11 months at NT$74.9 billion, mainly due to the bank’s merger with Jih Sun International Bank (日盛銀行) in April, which allowed it to add NT$31.5 billion of Jih Sun’s lending to its SME loan book.
After Taipei Fubon, Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), E. Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) and Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) also recorded sizeable expansions, adding about NT$56.05 billion, NT$46.62 billion, NT$43.21 billion and NT$34.08 billion to their SME loan book during the January-to-November period respectively, the commission said.
In related news, the nation’s credit card spending in the first 11 months of last year rose 21.66 percent annually to a record NT$3.84 trillion, exceeding the full-year level of NT$3.49 trillion in 2022, commission data showed last week.
As of November, the number of credit cards in circulation in Taiwan totaled 57.96 million, an increase of 170,000 from the previous month, with the ratio of effective cards standing at 64.94 percent, up 0.26 percentage points from a month earlier, the data showed.
Total credit card spending for last year is projected to exceed the NT$4 trillion mark, the commission said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday said it has signed an agreement with Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire the flat-panel display maker’s plant in Tainan for NT$17.14 billion (US$530.6 million) amid supply constraints of its advanced packaging capacity constraints. TSMC plans to use the plant, including buildings and manufacturing facilities, for future operations, the world’s biggest foundry service provider said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The chipmaker did not elaborate on whether it would convert the plant into a new panel-level packaging factory, or expand its advanced packaging chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity. The chipmaker "is working whatever it
As monsoon rains were about to break over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the threat of floods. “I was happy to hear I was getting married... I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila said after her wedding to a man twice her age in hope of a more prosperous life. “But I have nothing more, and with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.” Pakistan’s high rate of marriages for underage girls had been inching
LATE MOVE: If a deal goes ahead, upending Shin Kong Financial’s plans, CTBC Financial would be the financial conglomerate in Taiwan with the biggest assets CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金) yesterday said it is seeking regulatory approval to buy Shin Kong Financial Co (新光金) on the open market, casting a last-minute shadow over Taishin Financial Holding Co’s (台新金) bid. CTBC Financial, Taiwan’s third-largest financial conglomerate by assets, made known its intention in a stock exchange filing, just two days before Taishin Financial and Shin Kong Financial were to announce their merger through a share swap scheme. “We will supply more details over the buyout plan after the Financial Supervisory Commission [FSC] gives the go-ahead,” CTBC Financial said in the filing. The acquisition attempt, if realized, would enable CTBC
Japan has decided to apply foreign trade regulations to chipmaking equipment as part of its efforts to secure stable supply chains, the Japanese Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Foreign investors are now required to give prior notice when conducting direct investment in equipment tied to chipmaking, including when acquiring a 1 percent or bigger stake in a listed company or buying shares in an unlisted company, the ministry said in a statement. The move also aims to address the risk of technology leakage and keep commercial technologies from being used for military purposes, it said. Other products added to the list of