Taiwan continues to make progress in reducing the once massive mountain of bad loans and assets that resulted from the financial crisis of late 1998, the exposure of financial malfeasance after power was transferred from the Kuomintang to the Democratic Progressive Party in 2000 and the bursting of the high technology bubble in 2000-2001.
The combined ratio of non-performing loans (NPLR) and loans under observation continued to decline from 3.8% at the end of 2004 to 3.7% by April 30 (with the official NPLR at 2.75%, compared with 2.78% at the end of 2004), according to Financial Supervisory Commission data released on May 24. It had peaked at 11.74% (8.04% NPLR) in March 2001.
