Taiwan’s January Bounced Checks Top NT$3 Billion as 40%-Plus Growth Highlights Industry Divide

Taiwan’s central bank uses financial institutions’ reports of checks returned for insufficient funds to monitor liquidity conditions and creditworthiness among businesses and individuals. A sustained rise in the bounced-check value ratio could signal mounting cash-flow pressure, although monthly data can be distorted by a small number of large cases involving hundreds of millions of New Taiwan dollars. Longer-term trends are therefore needed to assess changes in economic conditions.

The central bank said the value ratio for checks returned due to insufficient funds rose to 0.34% in March, its highest level of 2026, after four large account holders each had more than NT$100 million in bounced checks. A central bank official said the increase was mainly driven by individual cases and could not yet be attributed to an economic downturn, adding that further monitoring was needed.

The value of bounced checks is an important gauge of corporate cash-flow strains and economic pressure. Central bank data showed that external tariff policies and exchange-rate volatility heightened operating uncertainty. The AI supply chain benefited from growing demand, while traditional industries faced cost and order pressures, making the divergence in business conditions more pronounced.

The Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) said the value of bounced checks reached NT$3.144 billion in January, up more than 40% from a year earlier and signaling rising credit risk in the market. Bankers said Trump’s tariff policies and exchange-rate volatility continued to affect corporate operations. AI-related companies performed strongly, but traditional industries faced a greater impact, deepening the divide.