Taiwan’s banks see profit fall in first 2 months

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/04
By: Wu Ching-chun and Frances Huang

Taipei, April 4 (CNA) Banks registered in Taiwan suffered a fall in profit for the first two months of this year after financial authorities here imposed restrictions on the trading of a type of risky derivatives, according to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Statistics compiled by the FSC, the top financial regulator in Taiwan, showed that pretax profit posted by 39 banks operating in Taiwan totaled NT$52.57 billion (US$1.68 billion) for the two-month period, down from NT$54.77 billion recorded a year earlier.

The FSC said that the fall in pretax profit resulted from lower bottom lines for the banks’ offshore banking units (OBUs). These OBUs’ sales in target redemption forward (TRF), a kind of risky options perceived to have higher risks, had dropped in the first two months due to tighter government sales rules.     [FULL  STORY]