Taipei, Nov. 20, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan’s domestic banks held deposits of NT$28.05 trillion (US$935 billion) as of the end of August, up 5.8% year on year, with term deposits accounting for NT$12.72 trillion (US$424 billion) or 45%, according to the statistics released by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).
The rise in deposits suggests lack of confidence in other investments as the stock market, with people in Taiwan inclined to be conservative toward wealth management, believing banks are preferable to riskier strategies.
In January deposits held by domestic banks totaled NT$27.46 trillion (US$915.33 billion), which slowly increased monthly except April and May. In the second quarter of the year the deposit-to-loan interest gap came to 1.42 percentage points, obviously higher than 1.11 percentage points recorded shortly after the global financial tsunami in the second half of 2008.
Generally government-linked banks are the major holders of deposits, with Bank of Taiwan leading with NT$3.23 trillion (US$107.67 billion) as of August. Other banks followed in sequence includes Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Land Bank of Taiwan, Hua Nan Bank, and Mega International Commercial Bank. In terms of passbook deposits, Taiwan Cooperative held the highest of NT$900 billion (US$30 billion).
As for private banks, Cathay United Bank held deposits of NT$1.51 trillion (US$50.33 billion) in the same period, Chinatrust Commercial Bank and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank saw the corresponding figure stand at NT$1.47 trillion (US$49 billion) and NT$1.26 trillion (US$42 billion), respectively.
(by Judy Li)
