Taiwan Government Suggests Banks Should Cooperate on Debt Collection

Taking a “house-divided-can’t-do-much” approach, Taiwan’s government is suggesting that the country’s banks should join forces and start collecting on bad debt.

What prompted this suggestion of teamwork?  Taiwan’s banks recently announced defaulters of over NT$100 ($3 million) million in loans.  And, since banks do little to collect these amounts, most of the debtors have fled Taiwan.

"What’s the use of naming names if you can’t get money from them?" asked KMT lawmaker Lai Shyi-bao. Hu Sheng-cheng, head of the Cabinet-level Financial Supervisory Commission, responded by saying banks should collectively collect from loan defaulters.

Also, when banks work together, they can come up with a larger reward for information leading to the whereabouts of financial fugitives, Hu said. This way, these fugitives would be easier to find, he said.