Taipei, April 2 (CNA) The United States remained the overseas market to which Taiwan’s 16 financial holding companies were most exposed at the end of 2021 for the 27th consecutive quarter, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Saturday.
The financial holding companies had U.S.-related loans and investments worth NT$7.047 trillion (US$245.5 billion) at the end of 2021, including NT$6.35 trillion in net investment, according to data compiled by the FSC, Taiwan’s top financial regulator.
China was a distant second, with the financial holding companies having exposure of NT$2.45 trillion in that market as of the end of last year, the data showed.
The U.S. and China have been the two markets to which the financial holding companies were most exposed since the FSC started keeping track of their global exposure in the second quarter of 2015.
During that time, exposure to the U.S. market has risen from NT$2.5 trillion to NT$7.047 trillion, while exposure to China has edged lower from NT$2.5 trillion to NT$2.45 trillion amid growing economic and political risks.
But exposure to China has fallen at a fairly brisk pace in recent months.
In the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, it was down NT$54.54 billion from a quarter earlier. Net investment was down by NT$55.62 billion and net lending was down NT$26.71 billion, but deposits and interbank loans in the China market rose by almost NT$30 billion.
Lin Shih-chieh (林士傑), an economist with the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, said investment in China fell for the fourth straight quarter as of the end of the fourth quarter in 2021 as authorities in Beijing took dramatic measures to rein in speculation in its tech and real estate sectors.
Lin expected investment in China by Taiwan’s financial holding companies to continue to fall this year amid growing fears that a spike in domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases in China will hurt its economic prospects.
Other overseas markets to which financial holding companies were exposed at the end of 2021 were the United Kingdom at NT$1.08 trillion, followed by France (NT$998 billion), Hong Kong (NT$931 billion), Japan (NT$858 billion), and Australia (NT$770 billion), according to FSC data.
As trade tensions continue to simmer between the U.S. and China, Taiwanese financial holding companies have shifted some of their attention to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market, the regulator said.
The 16 financial holding companies’ exposure to the 10 ASEAN countries totaled NT$1.72 trillion as of the end of 2021, up from NT$720.26 billion at the end of 2015.
Exposure to Singapore was the highest among the 10 ASEAN countries at NT$360.73 billion, ahead of Indonesia (NT$347.39 billion) and Vietnam (NT$325.51 billion) as of the end of 2021.
The three countries accounted for about 60 percent of the total exposure to the ASEAN bloc, the data showed.
Overall, Taiwan’s 16 financial holding companies had total overseas exposure of NT$62.15 trillion as of the end of last year, FSC data showed.
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