VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #3990 3330842
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 290842Z NOV 06
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3229

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 003990 
 
SIPDIS 
 
INFO USDOC WASHDC 
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMEMBASSY SEOUL 
AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMEMBASSY MANILA 
AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 
AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR 
AMEMBASSY HANOI 
AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 
AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 
AMCONSUL HONG KONG 
AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 
AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 
DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC 
 
SIPDIS, SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS AIT/W AND USTR 
 
STATE FOR EAP/TC, EAP/EP 
 
USTR FOR ALTBACH AND STRATFORD 
 
USDOC FOR 4420/USFCS/OCEA/EAP/LDROKER 
USDOC FOR 3132/USFCS/OIO/EAP/ADAVENPORT 
TREASURY FOR OASIA/LMOGHTADER 
TREASURY PLEASE PASS TO OCC/AMCMAHON 
TREASURY ALSO PASS TO FEDERAL RESERVE/BOARD OF 
GOVERNORS, AND SAN FRANCISCO FRB/TERESA CURRAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EINV EFIN ECON PINR TW
SUBJECT:  WEF Ranks Taiwan 100th in Banking Soundness 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently gave Taiwan's banking 
system a ranking of 100th out of 125 rated economies.  Taiwan's 
banking regulators have expressed dismay, disagreement, and have 
pointed out flaws in evaluation method.  End summary. 
 
Poor Ranking 
------------ 
 
¶2.  In its 2006 banking soundness rating for 125 economies, the WEF 
lowered Taiwan's ranking to 100th from 74th in 2005.  Banking 
soundness was one of 89 factors on the WEF global competitiveness 
rating.  Taiwan's 2006 overall ranking dropped from 8th to 13th, and 
the United States' ranking from first to fifth. 
 
Taiwan Regulator Disagrees 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3.  In response to the poor rating, the Financial Supervisory 
Commission Banking Bureau (BB) held a press conference on September 
27 to rebut the WEF findings.  The BB noted that the WEF did not 
base its bank rating on financial indicators as capital adequacy 
ratio, non-performing loan (NPL) ratio, return on asset (RA) ratio, 
and return on net worth (RE) ratio.  Instead, the WEF based its 
rating on a simple questionnaire which asks ordinary businessmen 
(without financial backgrounds) to judge the soundness of the 
banking system.  BB claims that the questionnaire's sole question on 
banks reads: "Banks in your country are: 1=insolvent and may require 
a government bailout, 7=generally healthy with sound balance sheet." 
 The BB also noted that the WEF never interviewed any of Taiwan's 
banking regulators. 
 
Good Shape but Poor Profitability 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  According to the BB, Taiwan banks are in relatively good shape 
with good quality assets.  Their average capital adequacy ratio is 
10.33%, higher than the 8% required by Basil II.  Their average NPL 
ratio is 2.39%.  Their profitability in term of RA or RE ratio is 
relatively poor but is expected to improve as delinquent debt 
problems seem to be under control. 
 
Poor Ranking for the United States and Japan 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  According to the BB, while the rating for Taiwan was unfair, the 
WEF also gave the United States a ranking of 27th, worse than 18th 
for Chile, 19th for South Africa, and 22nd for Barbados.  The 
ranking for banks in Japan was 76th. 
 
WANG