(Taiwan) – Taiwanese finance minister Lee Yung-san has asked his parliament for an extra US$30 billion to expand the government’s overhaul of the island-state’s banking system.Taiwan has already established a US$140 billion fund to rescue the bank sector, which is riddled with non-performing loans and low profit margins.
“At least 100 banking units, mostly credit departments of farmers and fishermen associations are on the brink of collapse and need to be restructured,” Lee told parliament.
Taiwan’s non-bank financial institutions have an NPL ratio of 18 percent, compared with a 10.8 percent ratio for local banks.
The government target is to cut the NPL ratio across the entire sector to under 5 percent within two years.