《TAIPEI TIMES》 Banks approve NT$81.6bn of loans for virus-hit firms

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

Local banks had approved 5,056 loan applications totaling NT$81.6 billion （US$2.72 billion） for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as of Wednesday last week, surging from 510 applications totaling NT$7.39 billion two weeks earlier, Financial Supervisory Commission （FSC） data showed yesterday.

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Eighty-seven percent of the loans, or 4,177 applications for NT$71.7 billion, were provided by state-run banks, for an average of NT$17 million per application, the data showed.

Private banks lent NT$9.9 billion to 879 firms, for an average of NT$11 million per application, data showed.

“It seems that the government did not have a strong incentive to encourage private banks to help affected businesses,” Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Legislator William Tseng （曾銘宗） told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei.

The approved loans represented a tiny fraction of the nation’s total lending of NT$6.9 trillion to small and medium-sized enterprises （SMEs）, Tseng said.

The lending does not appear significant, as the government’s relief program aims to support SMEs, commission Chairman Wellington Koo （顧立雄） said.

The commission would review its incentives for private banks to approve more loans for businesses affected by the pandemic, Koo said, adding that the government would cover most risks.

The Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Fund of Taiwan offers credit guarantees of 80 to 90 percent, or even full guarantees, for small-scale firms, he said.

Separately, the FSC would not lift a ban on short selling on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange, even though the local equity market has recovered, Koo said.

The commission first needs to evaluate whether the pandemic has been brought under control in Europe and the US, as the local market is highly sensitive to foreign equity markets, he said.

The regulator announced the ban in the middle of last month to curb speculative trading amid “irrational declines” on the stock market.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES