Taiwan’s Central Bank Dec. 29 identified two foreign banks involved in coordinated attacks on the New Taiwan Dollar through the dumping of large quantities of hot money in the nation’s foreign exchange market.
The government-run bank has requested that the Financial Supervisory Commission further investigate this latest forex manipulation.
Financial sector insiders have little doubt, however, that Wall Street currency speculator George Soros is behind the attacks, shielding his identity by acting through Citibank and other institutions.
Financial analysts said the central bank held two days of talks with Citibank and met Dec. 29 with executives of another foreign exchange bank with the aim of understanding the companies’ unusual strategies.
In a news statement issued on the eve of the Dec. 30 meeting of its board of directors, the central bank said a small number of authorized foreign exchange banks had targeted specific times of the day to dump large quantities of foreign currency, “inciting disorder and panic in the foreign exchange market.”
Analysts believed the central bank would continue its counteractive moves against the speculation to prevent excessive gain in the strength of the NT dollar.
About US$300 million of hot money was deployed in a joint strategy Dec. 29 by two foreign exchange banks, they said, causing a jump of NT$1.021 at 11 a.m. and a second rise of NT$1.021 at 2:30 p.m. that led to the day’s high of NT$29.375 per US dollar. (MGC)