GREEN HOLDING BACK: If the 14 banks that lent to Green Energy and CPT decide to recognize their loans as losses last month, then 2014’s record will not be reached

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 02, 2019
By: Kao Shih-ching  /  Staff reporter

Banks reported combined pretax profits of NT$318.05 billion (US$10.35 billion) in the January-to-November period, up 7.5 percent from the same period in 2017, with total pretax profits for last year likely to set a new record, the Financial Supervisory Commission said last week.

Banks in 2014 posted pretax profits totaling NT$320.1 billion, commission data showed.

As the first 11-month figure is only NT$2.1 billion less than the record and banks usually earn more than NT$20 billion per month, it is possible that local banks’ profitability reached a new high for the whole of last year, Banking Bureau Deputy Director Sherri Chuang (莊琇媛) told a news conference.

However, if the 14 banks led by Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) — which have lent NT$16.9 billion to Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管) and Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技) — decide to recognize their loans as losses in the month, then local banks’ combined pretax profits for last month would fall from a year earlier, meaning that the entire year’s pretax profits would not reach the record, Chuang said.    [FULL  STORY]