Taipei, March 11, 2010 (CENS)--Taiwan`s outstanding SME loans declined by US$1.77 billion or 1.7% to US$98.44 billion in January, according to the statistics released by the Cabinet-level Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

So FSC`s target for domestic banks to increase US$3.13 billion in SME loans for the year has to be raises to exceed US$4.69 billion.

T.L. Lin, deputy director at the Bureau of Monetary Affairs (BMA) under FSC, indicated that the drop in SME loans in January is normal since domestic enterprises usually repay loans before Chinese New Year, which mostly fall in February.

At the end of January the SME loans dropped a monthly US$1.77 billion to US$98.44 billion, or 42.62% of the total, which edged down by 0.04 of a percentage point from 42.66% posted a month earlier.

Among the lenders, Taiwan Business Bank witnessed the largest monthly decline of US$556.25 million in such loans, followed by Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Chang Hwa Bank and Mega International Commercial Bank, which presented corresponding fall of US$518.75 million, US$328.13 million and US$259.38 million, respectively.

Bank of Taiwan, Land Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank and First Commercial Bank also saw lower SME loans in the same month.

On the contrary, some private banks saw monthly rise in SME loans in January. Taishin International Bank showed the largest growth of US$243.75 million and Chinatrust Commercial Bank the second largest at US$134.38 million. E. Sun Bank also saw an increase of US$56.25 million.

(by Judy Li)