Chinatrust to increase bad debt provisions

Taiwan's Chinatrust Financial said Tuesday its banking arm plans to put aside an additional NT$1 billion (US$33 million) to its bad debt provisions after one of its clients bounced a check.

Everskill Technology and its affiliates have a combined debt of about NT$2.5 billion to Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Chinatrust Financial said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.

The news came after the Taipei stock market closed Tuesday. Chinatrust Financial shares slid 7 percent to their daily limit, worse than the main TAIEX index's 1.5 percent drop.

Chinatrust Financial, Taiwan's top credit card issuer, has said it expected its bad debt provisions in 2008 to rise about 2 percent from NT$9.914 billion in 2007.