Banks registered in Taiwan suffered a fall in profit for the first two months of this year after financial authorities imposed restrictions on the trading of a type of risky derivatives.
According to statistics compiled by the Financial Supervisory Commission, 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 commission 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 type of product perceived to carry higher risks, dropped in the first two months due to tighter government sales rules.