Taiwan Financials: Risk implications of equity market leverage

Research evidence excerpt

Taiwan Financials: Risk implications of equity market leverage

J P M O R G A N Asia Pacific Equity Research

31 July 2026

Taiwan Financials

Risk implications of equity market leverage

The recent TWSE pullback and issues with leveraged ETFs in Korea (link, link) Asia Financials

AChave resulted in rising concerns about potential asset quality risks at banks and Jemmy S Huang

brokers by offering the leverage to retailers into the equity markets. Our analysis (886-2) 2725-9870

suggests that increasing balances in margin financing and non-restricted purpose jemmy.s.huang@jpmorgan.com

lending at brokers and consumer loans at banks are indeed the red flag, but rising J.P.MorganMorganSecuritiesSecurities(Asia(Taiwan)Pacific) Limited/Limited/ J.P.J.P.

regulatory scrutiny should cool the momentum, while history also indicates that Morgan Broking (Hong Kong) Limited

actual losses should be largely manageable as long as the existing risk management Amanda Chang AC

mechanisms are properly implemented. In addition, leveraged ETFs should have (886-2) 2725-9861

limited implications on market volatility in Taiwan. amanda.chang@jpmorgan.com

J.P. Morgan Securities (Taiwan) Limited

• Margin finance and non-restricted purpose lending at brokers has not Katherine Lei

increased materially “on a relative basis.” The aggregate balance for margin (852) 2800-8552

financing and non-restricted purpose lending at brokers has more than doubled katherine.lei@jpmorgan.com

J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited/ J.P.

YoY as of June, but still represents only 0.9% of the entire market cap, flat YoY. Morgan Broking (Hong Kong) Limited

However, balance sheet leverage at brokers has indeed increased to 165-333%

of shareholders’ equity from 107-217% a year ago, based on our estimates,