| 2004.06.01 |
Ministry of Finance Prescribes Required Disclosure Items, Definitions, and Disclosure Methods for Important Business and Financial Information for Credit Cards
[Chinese]
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Ministry of Finance Prescribes Required Disclosure Items, Definitions, and Disclosure Methods for Important Business and Financial Information for Credit Cards
(1 June 2004)
Letter Ref. Tai-Tsai-Rong-(IV)-0934000434
Subject: To raise the transparency of the asset quality of credit card issuing institutions, promote the functions of business self-regulation and market discipline, and facilitate sound development of the credit card market, the required disclosure items, definitions, and disclosure methods for important business and financial information for credit cards are hereby prescribed, as specified in the "Statement." Please be advised and forward the information herein.
Statement:
1. This is in response to the letter dated 10 May 2004 (ref. Cyuan-Sin-1146) from the Bankers Association of the Republic of China.
2. The required disclosure items, definitions, and disclosure methods for important business and financial information for credit cards are as follows:
(1) The required disclosure items and definitions are:
(i) Number of cards in circulation: the total number of cards issued and in normal condition minus the total number of cards cancelled.
(ii) Number of active cards: cards with charge activity in the past six months, excluding debit cards; cards with only mail-order/installment activity are included; cards with only revolving payment activity are excluded.
(iii) Number of cards issued that month: reissued cards and renewed cards excluded.
(iv) Number of cards cancelled that month: newly cancelled cards.
(v) Revolving credit balance: the amount of principal that incurred interest on revolving credit for the month.
(vi) Amount of charges for the month.
(vii) Amount of cash advances for the month.
(viii) Ratio of accounts delinquency by three months or more to the balance of accounts receivable (including accounts under collection): delinquent accounts refers to receivables in accounts where the amount paid by card holders for the month does not cover the required minimum payment, and accounts that are not yet past due but for which recourse action has been taken against the primary and secondary debtor. If the cardholder has charges past due for several months and subsequently makes payment sufficient to cover the minimum payment for one month, the duration of delinquency is reduced by one month, but the account is still delinquent until the cardholder has paid off the minimum payment for each period.
(ix) Ratio of accounts delinquency by six months or more to the balance of accounts receivable (including accounts under collection).
(x) Coverage ratio: ratio of bad debt reserve actually put aside to required bad debt reserve.
(xi) Amount of monthly bad debt write-offs.
(xii) Amount of annual cumulative bad-debt write-offs.
(2) Disclosure method: The aforesaid important business and financial information for credit card issuing institutions is disclosed monthly in the "Financial Information Disclosures" pages of the Banking Bureau web site (http://www.banking.gov.tw). The source of the data is the credit card business data reported by the 15th of each month for the previous month by all credit card issuing institutions on the Internet reporting system of the Banking Bureau. All institutions shall be responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of reported data.
(3) The aforesaid disclosure provisions will apply beginning from the data for the end of June 2004 reported by credit card issuing institutions in July 2004.
(4) Additionally, to facilitate the obtaining by the general public of timely information on the finances and business of individual financial institutions, all card issuing institutions shall, by the 15th of each month, disclose on their websites the required disclosure items for the preceding month end, beginning from July 2004 (i.e. for the data for June 2004).
3. To accommodate the implementation of the aforesaid important credit card business and financial information disclosures, on the financial institution Internet reporting system of the Banking Bureau (https://ebank.banking.gov.tw), the Credit Card Issuing Business Maintenance and Credit Card Business Maintenance program codes have been changed. The Card Issuing Business Data Maintenance program code has been changed from WB010W to WB015W; the Acquiring Business Data Maintenance Program Code has been changed from WB009W to WB016W, and the reporting items have also been changed. Beginning from July 2004, by the 15th of each month, all credit card business institutions shall report the data for the preceding month-end based on the revised program codes and reporting items. The month to which the data belongs shall be entered as the base date for the report (e.g., the data for the end of June 2004 shall be reported by 15 July 2004; "June 2004" shall be entered as the report base date). For information such as the operating manual, maintenance times, and maintenance procedures for the aforesaid revised reporting items and reporting operations, please refer to the "Updates" and "Financial Institution Internet Online Reporting Instructions" web pages linked on the lower left hand corner of the home page of the Internet reporting system of the Banking Bureau.