Exposure to China among Taiwan’s banking, insurance and securities firms and mutual funds in May fell about 17 percent from a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said, attributing the result to a slower Chinese economy.
Exposure to China among local investment trust companies and foreign firms with local investors totaled NT$1.49 trillion (US$47.56 billion) at the end of May, down more than NT$300 billion from a year earlier, FSC data showed.
The banking industry’s exposure, or loans and investments, fell by NT$180.7 billion from a year earlier to about NT$1.05 trillion at the end of May, or about 25.2 percent of the industry’s net worth, a new low since figures began being published in the third quarter of 2013, the data showed.
Photo: EPE/EFE
The Banking Bureau said that the Chinese economy is facing downside risks amid trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, turning many investors away.
Caution among investors has risen about risks affecting Chinese enterprises and its property market, the bureau said.
Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) chairman Lu Ju-cheng (呂桔誠) said that the decline in banks’ exposure was because China remains in conflict with the West, so Taiwanese enterprises have tended to globalize, moving investments from China to Southeast Asian countries or India, or return to Taiwan to diversify their risk.
Taiwanese banks followed the lead of their clients to seek a better balance, Lu said.
The local banking industry is determined to support Taiwanese enterprises as they adopt global expansion strategies, he said.
The FSC data showed that investments by local life insurance companies in Chinese equities fell NT$74.4 billion from a year earlier, or 43 percent, to NT$99.7 billion, which is only 0.32 percent of their capital, down from 0.59 percent.
The Insurance Bureau said that China’s trade dispute with the US and the effects of restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic were behind the cuts by insurance firms.
Non-life insurers had cut their investments in Chinese equities to zero as of the end of May, as they needed funds to pay COVID-19 insurance policy claims in Taiwan, the FSC said.
However, local securities business increased investments in China by NT$4.66 billion, or 62.59 percent, from a year earlier to NT$12.1 billion in May, the data showed.
A Taiwanese brokerage increased its stake in a Chinese company by NT$657 million as the firm launched an intellectual rights suit, while proprietary operations of local securities firms made net investments of about NT$40 billion, the FSC said.
Investments by Taiwanese futures and trust firms were unchanged from a year earlier at NT$251 million and NT$2.69 billion respectively, it said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
RSS