Tarf trouble in Taiwan: Sliding renminbi threatens heavy losses

Derivatives linked to the US dollar-renminbi exchange rate have been successful during the Chinese currency’s four-year rise. But now it is sliding, corporate users are looking at heavy losses and regional banks could face a big funding hit. Lukas Becker reports

From Citi’s offices in Singapore, Adam Gilmour, the bank’s head of Asia-Pacific currency and derivatives sales, is keeping a watchful eye on Taiwan’s interbank US dollar funding rate, TAIFX. It has risen rapidly over the past six months, from 0.85% for three-month money at the start of November 2013 to 1.53% on April 24. And Gilmour is not alone.

“There is a lot of interest in this,” he says. “From the top of the bank there’s been interest in finding out what is going on.” 

That is because