The United States remained the largest debtor of Taiwan’s banking sector for the 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with exposure rising more than 8 percent from the previous quarter on the back of an increase in U.S. bonds, according to Taiwan’s central bank.<\/p>\n
The second largest exposure of Taiwanese banks as of the end of March was to China, although claims by the local banking sector fell more than 4 percent from a quarter earlier, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
Data compiled by the central bank indicated that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on the U.S. on a direct risk basis stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March, up 8.30 percent from a quarter earlier.<\/p>\n
Pan Ya-hui (???), deputy head of the central bank’s Department of Financial Inspection, told CNA that the U.S. Federal Reserve kicked off a rate hike cycle in March, a move that boosted treasury and bond yields, prompting Taiwanese banks to raise their holdings of American debt.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Pan said, lockdowns in several Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Suzhou and Kunshan, to combat COVID-19 infections made Taiwanese banks more cautious, leading and cut exposure to Chinese debtors.<\/p>\n
As a result, the Taiwanese banking sector’s claims on China as of the end of March dropped 4.56 percent from a quarter earlier to US$56.77 billion, but remained the sector’s second largest debtor, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
As of the end of March, the U.S. and China accounted for 23.71 percent and 10.74 percent respectively of the local banking sector’s exposure, which totaled US$528.7 billion, up 1.26 percent from a quarter earlier, in the wake of an increase in investments in the public sector outside Taiwan, according to the central bank.<\/p>\n
The non-banking sector outside Taiwan accounted for 59.56 percent of Taiwanese banks’ total exposure, foreign banks represented 28.84 percent and the public sector outside Taiwan 10.84 percent, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
After the U.S. and China, Luxembourg remained in third spot, with Taiwanese banks’ exposure on a direct risk basis at US$39.72 billion as of the end of March, down 6.11 percent from a quarter earlier, ahead of Hong Kong (US$37.38 billion), and Japan (US$30.86 billion), the data showed.<\/p>\n
Australia took the sixth spot with the exposure of Taiwan’s banking sector reaching US$30.81 billion at the end of the first quarter, followed by the Cayman Islands (US$18.62 billion), Singapore (US$17.97 billion), Vietnam (US$16.87 billion) and the United Kingdom (US$16.81 billion).<\/p>\n
The top 10 debtors accounted for 73.99 percent of Taiwanese banks’ aggregate international claims at the end of March, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
Among the 10 debtors, Australia saw the largest increase of 16.49 percent in debt sequentially, while exposure to Japan fell 15.91 percent quarter-on-quarter, the steepest drop, the central bank added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States remained the largest debtor of Taiwan’s banking sector for the 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with exposure rising more than 8 percent from the previous quarter on the back of an increase in U.S. bonds, ac…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n