Taiwan's Chinatrust to increase bad debt provisions

TAIPEI, July 1 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Chinatrust Financial (2891.TW) said on Tuesday its banking arm plans to put aside an additional T$1 billion ($33 million) to its bad debt provisions after one of its clients bounced a cheque.

Everskill Technology 6232.TWO and its affiliates have a combined debt of about T$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 on 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 T$9.914 billion in 2007.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank's bad debt provisions for this year were not available. (Reporting by Baker Li, Editing by Paul Bolding)