Taiwan's Outstanding Car Loans Plunge 24% to NT$91.88 B. as of Nov. 2007

Taipei, Jan. 23, 2008 (CENS)--Taiwan's outstanding car loans stood at NT$91.884 billion (US$2.78 billion at US$1 = NT$33) at the end of November of 2007, a sharp fall of about 24% or near NT$30 billion (US$909.09 million) from NT$120.269 billion (US$3.64 billion) recorded at the end of 2006, according to the statistics released by the Cabinet-level Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

Insiders indicated that the soaring oil and commodity prices weakened the willingness of consumers to purchase new cars in the past year, and the resultant sluggish car market led to the decline of car loans. Besides, some car dealers have directly offered loans to their buyers who can hardly get loans from banks that have tightened up consumer credits since the twin-card debt storm broke out two years ago. This was another reason for shrinkage of car loans from banks.

In the first 11 months of 2007, all financial institutions here recorded a total of 332,966 car loan cases, and at the end of November of last year their outstanding car loans posted by them sharply declined by more than 20% from a year earlier to below NT$100 billion (US$3.03 billion).

Banks recording a growth in car loans during the period included Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Sunny Bank, Cota Commercial Bank, Taichung Commercial Bank, EnTie Commercial Bank, Cosmos Bank, and ABN AMRO Bank. The first six are domestic banks and the last one is a Dutch bank. Among them Cota saw the highest rise of NT$1.7 billion (US$51.52 million) in such loans.

Taishin International Bank, Jih Sun International Bank, and Union Bank of Taiwan were the top three car loan extenders last year, but all of them experienced a decline in such loans.

Outstanding car loans extended by banks in Taiwan in 2006 and at end of Nov. 2007 Unit: NT$B.
	At end of Nov. 2007	2006
Taishin	17.691	20.573
Jih Sun	10.995	19.943
Union	9.511	12.644
All banks here	91.884	120.269
Source: FSC