Taipei Times
Date: Dec 04, 2017
By: Staff writer

The profitability of Taiwanese banks might remain modest next year compared with this year, as tepidly improving interest margins are offset by a slight rise in credit costs, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday.

On average, the local banking sector could achieve a return-on-assets ratio of about 0.6 percent from next year to 2019, Taipei-based analysts Jenifer Chou (周筱娟), Sophia Chen (陳怡如) and Cherry Huang (黃嬿如) said in a report.

The sector’s return-on-assets ratio stayed at between 0.5 and 0.6 percent from last year to this year, according to Fitch’s tallies.

“The slight increase in credit costs captures the incremental increase in risk appetite as banks expand into better-yielding segments,” the report said.    [FULL  STORY]