Thank you for standing by, welcome to Fubon Financial's first quarter 2022 financial results. At this time, all participants will be in listen only mode. Questions will be taken at the end of the presentation. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now I will hand the call over to your host, Mr. Amanda Wang, the IR Officer of Fubon Financial Holding. Ms. Wang, please begin.
Thank you. Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining Fubon Financial's first quarter results day. Let me walk you through the first part of this presentation, will followed by the embedded value of Fubon Life for year 2021. We will have the Q and A session hosted by the management team. Firstly, please turn to page four. In Fubon Financial's first quarter highlights, we announced the cash dividend payment that includes TWD 3.50 of cash dividend and TWD 0.50 of stock dividend. In the holding company's profit, we see the first quarter's result remains a strong one, with TWD 46.5 billion of net profit. Asset and net worth both shows growth. The subsidiary, Fubon Life, the net profit has been a strong one that's top among the peers, which mainly comes from the investment return and the hedging improvement.
In Taipei Fubon Bank, the net profit growth mainly comes from the asset growth and also the NIM enhancement that we see the NII's expansion of over 10%. In the meantime, the bargain purchase gain of TWD 2.8 billion from the Hyundai Card, that also contribute to the strong earnings of this quarter. In Fubon Insurance, the net profit growth is over 50%, which is mainly driven by the investment return as the capital gains performance is decent. In Fubon Securities, net profit decline. That mainly reflects the capital markets volatility and also decreases capital market turnover in Taiwan. Going forward, we continue to expect synergies with Jih Sun Securities to further enhance our market position. In Jih Sun Financial Holdings, the net profit first quarter was down, mainly reflect the securities business, while its banking operation shows a profit up by over 30%.
In ESG, we have a few achievements in year to date, including firstly, the participation in the accessibilities initiatives. We are now a member of PCAF, also we recently joined AIGCC. While we are in the application process to join the RE100. All of these advocate that we participate, that we aim to further enhance the green transition and also to enhance our disclosure. The awards and ratings, we are honored to get the top position in Sustainalytics' ESG risk ratings under the insurance company's category. Also in the supplier engagement rating that we are consistently to rank A- list. In the business, we enter into a sustainability-linked loan in Taipei Fubon Bank with a client. Next, let's move on to page six. The net profit is down by 9%, while actual level that Fubon continue to be ahead of the peers.
In page seven, the earnings contribution by subsidiaries, now we can see the growth come from Taipei Fubon Bank, Hong Kong and China, and Fubon Insurance. While Life and Security down mainly reflect the capital markets movement. In page eight, the asset and the net worth of the holding company shows sequential growth on a year-over-year basis. On page nine, the ROA and ROE decline. That mainly reflect the numerator is a fluctuation, while the actual level in the ROA and ROE on an annualized basis remain well-performed. Next, let's move on to page 11 regarding Fubon Life. The total premium came down, mainly reflect the renewal premiums down. That is in line with the market's trend in year 2021 and first quarter this year.
While we expect the pattern for the total premium could turn a positive growth in year 2023, while the renewal premiums pattern would narrow down on the decline quite meaningfully in year 2023 as well. In page 12, the first-year premium, as we can see, is slightly down by 4.9% in first quarter. That's largely due to the impact from the pandemic. If we look at a quarter-over-quarter basis, the growth is about 18%. In page 13, the FYPE down, that pretty much mirror the movement in FYP. While on a quarter-over-quarter basis, we also show the growth of about 12% in FYPE. In page 14, in terms of contribution by channels, we continue to focus on internal ones, including the agency force and the Taipei Fubon Bank are increasing their contribution in the FYP and FYPE mix.
In page 15, in the investment portfolio for Fubon Life, the total amount slightly up by 5% and reached TWD 4.7 trillion. The migration in the first quarter mainly reflect the proportion in domestic equity down. That reflects, one is the realization of the capital gains, and secondly, because of the impact from market fluctuation. In the meantime, we can see an increase. In terms of the fixed income, we continue to focus on investment-grade bonds, and in face of the rate hike market, we will gradually to deploy and continue to allocate into mainly in the North America area. In page 17, the investment return for Fubon Life, as we can see from the bottom two lines in the table, they reach over 6.68% on annualized basis after a hedge. That is quite well performed compared to a track record.
Our performance mainly come from, one is the recurring return. You can see the interest income from the fixed income and cash dividend both increase. Secondly, from the capital gains, which mainly come from equity positions. Thirdly, from the FX, which is a net gain. In page 18, in the hedging and FX, as we can see from the upper left-hand side, the overall hedging result is a net gain of 56 basis point, as we reduce the use of the recurring hedging instrument and also increase the naked dollar position. In the meantime, the FX reserve now reach TWD 19.2 billion, while we can also see the recurring return, both before and after hedge basis, both shows a increase year-over-year.
In page 19, in terms of the cost of liability versus the investment return, it continue to deliver a positive spread and further widening compared to the year-end, December 2021. While the break-even point shows us some increase year-over-year, that mainly reflects the increase of the reserve for the distributable dividend surplus for the participating policies. That's mainly on back of the investment returns well performed. In page 20, in terms of the unrealized balance in Fubon Life, it reached TWD 51 billion as of end of March. The fluctuation mainly reflect the market volatility. While in the meantime, the book value and also the RBC ratio continue to stay at a well-capitalized level. In page 22, let's move on to Taipei Fubon Bank's section. The revenues growth mainly reflects the NII growth and also the bargain purchase gain.
The NII growth is on back of the asset scale and also the market rate hike. While the offsetting factor mainly came from the treasury and also the fee income. In page 23, in terms of the total credit, it grow by 11.9%, while the retail growth is stronger at 17.7%, and corporate loan at 6.9%. The corporate loan in page 24 mainly come from the NT book, while the SME segment lead the growth driver of over 22% growth. In page 25, the retail business, the mortgage and also personal secured loans are both growth quite strongly. While we do anticipate that the mortgage growth, going forward in the next few quarters, may moderate at a high single-digit growth for the full year. While the personal secured loan, on back of the cross-sell support from the credit card holders' contribution, we see the growth should continue to be strong.
In page 26, in terms of the deposit, the deposit, overall speaking, is a strong one. Comes from NT dollar's growth of 15%, and the foreign currency's growth of 32%. In the meantime, the LDR in NT book slightly edged up to about 86.8%, while in foreign currencies, loan and bond investment trend down to about 55%. In page 27, the rising rate and also the asset mix adjustment that lead to the improvement of nature spread and margin by 1 basis point quarter-over-quarter. In page 28 and 29, the asset quality, overall speaking, has remained stable. In page 30, the credit card's performance, we can see the active cards growth of over 12% and card spending of over 5%. While the card ending are slightly down, but we continue to rank top one among the top five peers.
In page 31, the Taipei Fubon Bank's fee income slightly down by 9%. That mainly reflect wealth management and also the credit card's marketing expense, which we would do adjustment in second half of the year, We expect the credit card's expense would controlled further in second half. In the wealth management area, the sales from the insurance actually has been doing decently. The commission is up by over 14%. However, it was offset by the decline in mutual fund and structured products. As the market cycle has turned more stabilized, we expect the wealth management momentum should resume. In page 32, on the overseas branches, revenue is pretty much flat, while the net profit improved by over 30%, mainly on back of the provision expense improvement. In Fubon Insurance, the direct written premium first quarter was up by over 15%.
Both the commercial and personal lines growth outperformed the market average. The net combined ratio is slightly up. That reflects a higher proportion in the commercial lines result. We would also like to update to the investment community regarding the COVID-related policy status in Fubon Insurance. Firstly, it is regarding the insurance policy, regarding its current status result. The total effective policy number is about 2.31 million as of April. These are policy size that translate into premium income of about TWD 4.28 billion. The total effective policy number was about another 15,000 in May. There are around one million policies that are still in our review underwriting process. We estimate the effective policy number will be reduced to about 1.55 million in third quarter as the policies maturity.
Regarding the COVID-related insurance claims status, the cumulative amount is about TWD 710 million from 18,000 claims cases since the inception of the product they launched in year 2021, also year to date as of April. The gross loss ratio is about 15%. The COVID-related claim payment and provision are reflected in our preliminary earnings results in April as well. The settled claim was about TWD 140 million from 4,000 claim cases in April. Additionally, the claim reserves that included in the outstanding claims and also incurred but not reported, which is so-called IBNR reserves. That is a total of TWD 280 million in April. A more recent update is, during the first two weeks of May, the settled claim was TWD 390 million from 11,000 claim cases. Going forward, we expect the claim payment may increase from the unsettled claims.
That included in the reported and also the unreported ones in May. Factors we continue to watch carefully, including the pandemic's development, the quarantine guideline from the government, also the clarification on claim payment standards. Reserve would also increase accordingly to reflect in the monthly result. Therefore, in the monthly release during the next few months, we plan to disclose the monthly claim payment to update to the investment community. Regarding the reserve status, the outstanding claim reserve and also the IBNR reserve are a total of TWD 280 million as of April. On top of that, the release of the special reserve to offset part of the losses has been under discussion with the insurance association and also regulator. The special reserve is $15.5 billion outstanding. Also, in addition, some of the COVID-related policies are under the reinsurance coverage.
If we may move on to page 36. In Fubon Securities, the net profit in first quarter is down by over 55%. That mainly reflects the index volatility and also the market turnover trend down, while we expect the potential synergies upon the merger with Jih Sun Securities. Page 38, in Fubon Bank China, the loan and deposit balance both grow steadily, while the net interest margin shows us improvement of 13 basis points from the volume and also margin that both lead to the net profits increase of over 21%. While the NPL ratio increased, that mainly reflects the economic development and also the epidemic. Going forward, the strategy would aim to strike a balance between the earnings growth and also asset quality. Next, I would like to introduce Ms. Grace Hsu, Senior Management from the Actuarial team, to walk you through Fubon Life's embedded value 2021.
Thank you.
Thank you. Please turn to page 40, the value creation summary for Fubon Life. The first part is the in-force value creation. Benefit from the historical high net worth and high increase in variable in-force after cost of capital. The embedded value reached TWD 976.5 billion, also a historical high record. Strong growth of 25% compared to last year accordingly. The new sales value creation. The combination effect of COVID-19 pandemic and favorable investment environment boost the sales of single-premium investment products and lower the regular premium. Year 2021, the VNB is TWD 17.8 billion, a decrease 27% versus previous years. The embedded value per share of financial holding company is TWD 82.50, also the highest record ever. Page 41, the movement analysis for adjusted net worth. This page shows the net worth movement between year 2020 and 2021 and how it is adjusted for the embedded value calculation.
The 2021 statutory net worth is TWD 599.1 billion, or 23.7% increase from previous year, mainly contributed from the highest record of earnings, TWD 102.3 billion in 2021, an additional TWD 24.0 billion financial assets appreciation during the period. The negative impact of TWD 11.7 billion reflects the cash dividend remitted to the holding company and some reporting currency impact of NTD appreciation. The adjustment made to calculate adjusted net worth are similar to previous years. Firstly, at the special reserve, this could be treated as available capital from regulator's perspective. Secondly, remove the unrealized capital gains of fixed income assets from the accounting book to align with the book year return assumptions used for VIF calculation. Lastly, add the own-use real estate appreciation, which was not recognized in accounting book. Page 42, the movement analysis for variable in-force before cost of capital.
The expected earnings and required return explains how VIF roll over one year. TWD 31.2 billion earning is transferred to the net worth, and the unwinding of 10% discounting rate contributes TWD 47.8 billion. The economic assumption change, the impact is very minimal of TWD 0.1 billion. Negative impact of TWD 11.3 billion from the noneconomic assumption is due to the assumption changes made to reflect less favorable actual experience. The variable new business before cost of capital contributed additional TWD 17.4 billion. The risk discount rate assumption is lowered from 10% - 9% to reflect the decreasing of key parameters used to determine discount rate. We will elaborate more afterwards. The 2021 VIF before cost of capital reaches TWD 565.2 billion, growth 16.3% compared to last year.
Page 43, the movement analysis for VNB. 2021 FYP grew at 4.6%. Variable investment markets boosted the sales of single-premium investment products and lower regular premium policies.
The economic assumption change impact is only TWD 0.8 billion to reflect the increasing interest rate environment. Non-economic assumption reduced the VNB by TWD 1.5 billion to reflect higher expense assumption resulted from less new policies issued. The risk discount rate is reduced to 9%. We will elaborate more later. Page 44. We summarize the economic assumptions here for your easy reference. Page 45. The portfolio return is to calculate the Value of In-Force. This page shows return curve for this 2021 is very close to 2020. The economic assumption change impact on page 42 is only TWD 0.1 billion for VIP before COC. Page 46, VNB portfolio return. Compared to 2020 VNB return, the 2021 return curve is slightly higher in the early period, very close in the middle, widely high at the ultimate to reflect increasing interest rate environment. Page 47, the discount rate.
The CAPM model is used to determine the risk discount rate as usual. The key parameters include risk-free rate, equity plus country risk premium, and the beta of Fubon Financial Holding company. We have been using average of the past 10 years data to calculate equity plus country risk premium and the beta of Fubon Financial Holding. The data shows decreasing trend in recent years. The parameters are lower accordingly as shown in the table here. The resulted equivalent RDR is less than 9%. We then use 9% for value calculation. Page 48. We follow the latest RBC regulation and determine the cost of capital at 200% RBC level. Page 49 and page 50 shows the sensitivity results. This is meant to provide a sense on how these two assumptions drive changes to different value metrics. Now I will pass the call over to Fiona from Deloitte Consulting. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone. This is Fiona Lin, Director of Deloitte Consulting. We are honored to have been engaged by Fubon Life again for the review of this year EV and VNB. Similar to previous years, the scope of this year's review includes a review of the assumptions applied by Fubon Life in this evaluation, as well as the overall EV and VNB results. A high-level review of the actual model and policy data used by Fubon Life in this evaluation and a review of the calculation methodology for the cost of capital, adjusted net worth, and Value of In-Force movement analysis. With respect to the risk discount assumption applied by Fubon Life, the assumption utilization methodology has been kept consistent using the CAPM approach.
Similar to recent years, Fubon Life has derived four data points, including a risk-free rate based on the current risk-free rate, long-term risk-free rate, as well as an in-force and new business equivalent RDR. These four RDRs lie between 7.46% and 9.7%. Fubon Life set the RDR assumption for both in-force and new business at 9% for this year's evaluation. With respect to the investment return assumption, Fubon Life has adopted a consistent utilization methodology. The initial risk-free rate for both NTD and U.S. dollar has been updated to a prevailing level based on market information, while keeping the long-term level the same as last year's. The investment return assumption for all asset classes has been appropriately updated to reflect the company's latest estimates and investment strategy. Based on our review, we found investment return assumption and the adjustment makes the workings internally consistent.
The overall investment return assumption lies within a reasonable range. Deloitte Consulting has also reviewed all non-economic assumptions applied by Fubon Life. All assumptions have been updated to reflect the company's latest experience and lie within a reasonable range. Through a review of the movement analysis for the Value of In-Force and VNB and various sensitivities, we found the overall EV and VNB result for this year to lie within a reasonable range. This is our Deloitte Consulting briefing on our review of Fubon Life's EV results. Detailed findings can be found in the opinion letter issued by Deloitte Consulting. Thank you.
Thanks for presentation. In the very beginning, we would like to introduce management team in this call today. Mr. Jerry Harn, President of Fubon Financial Holding, and we also have Mr. Roman Cheng, President of Taipei Fubon Bank. Ms. Tsai-Ling Chao and Ms. Grace Hsu from Finance and Actuarial Division, and Ms. Catherine Pao from Investment Planning in Fubon Life. Mr. Victor Chen and Mr. Raphael Lin from Fubon Insurance. Mr. Watson Chang and Ms. Iwa Hu from Fubon Bank China, and Dr. Rick Lo from Economic Research in Fubon Financial. Next, we would like to open for the Q and A session. Operator, please take questions from the audience. Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask the question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad and you will enter the queue. After you are announced, please ask your question. If you find that your question has been answered before it is your turn to speak, please press zero two to cancel the question. Thank you. Now, please press zero one to ask a question. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Chung Hsu of Credit Suisse. Go ahead, please.
Hi. Hi, management. Thank you for the presentation. I have a few questions, and I'll start with the bank. I think in the Chinese session, management mentioned that maintain a double-digit loan growth target this year, and first quarter loan growth is really quite good. I think with the call, you mentioned that the mortgage growth for the rest of the year will moderate from 17% to high single digit. Just curious, what other loan segment will make up for this slowdown in mortgage? My second question is on margin. I'm a bit confused. If you look at margin in the first quarter, it's down year-over-year. Is this all because of loan mix shift? You are growing consumer loans quite rapidly. Is it because you grow mortgage and that's guiding your overall loan spread and margin on a year-over-year basis?
Are you still keeping your margin guidance for 2022? My third question is on the P&C Insurance. Based on what Amanda mentioned, the number of policy claims and the amount of claims, it seems that each policy is about TWD 35,000-TWD 40,000 claim. My question is two parts. One is it fair to assume that from now on, at least in the next two, three months, every claim is about similar amounts, like TWD 35,000-TWD 40,000? If based on the number of valid policy, it should be somewhere between 2.3 million to 3 million policies. If my calculation, the agent might bear the loss of claim for every 10% infection rates in Taiwan. Is that something reasonable without considering you release anything, any special reserve, et cetera? My last question is on your EV number.
You adjusted your investment return assumption by a few basis points. When I look at your presentations, slide 40 I believe it's in slide 42, the economic assumption change is almost zero. Just curious, is there anything else that is included in the economic assumption as 0.1 to be exact? Thank you.
Thank you, Chung . We'll have Mr. Roman Cheng's comment first. Thank you.
Thank you for your question about our total loan outstanding and the growth numbers. In the first quarter of this year, Taipei Fubon Bank registered a 12% loan growth for the first quarter, mainly contributed by the SME lending increase by 23% and the unsecure consumer finance increase by 35%. The mortgage loan increase also by 17.6%. For the going forward in the second half, I think altogether, our loan growth can remain as strong as the growth number in the first quarter, which is 12%. With this path, we can continue our 12% loan growth all the way down to the end of this year. In terms of the NIM, yes, the first quarter NIM slightly reduced, mainly because of our loan growth actually flew to quality assets.
Considering the rate hike for both NT dollar and the U.S. dollar interest rate. Based on our assumption, we think the total NIM by end of this year can increase by 11 basis points. Hope this answer your question.
Thank you. Can I follow up then for second half this year, is there going to be further shift to quality? Or is there going to be a more stable, meaning we can capture that entire benefit from rate hike?
Yes. Quality will still remain the top priority. Because of the rate hike, our NIM can naturally improve without sacrificing our quality.
Okay. Please.
Okay. I think, Chung, your second question regarding P&C. You are trying to seek the guidance for per policies, claim payment of TWD 35,000-TWD 40,000, whether it's reasonable or not. You want to seek the guidance, right?
Yes.
Okay. Sure. Yeah, please.
For the policy, have three coverage. One is infection rate, the second one is the quarantine, how many quarantine, and the third one is hospital cash. According to the government figures from January to April, that one infection is seven quarantine. From this month, 17, that quarantine will be decreased a lot, maybe less than three. The figure still need to evaluated.
Please. Sorry.
Okay.
Yeah. I think we cannot use the TWD 35,000-TWD 40,000 per case. My question two parts, one is per case, can we use TWD 35,000-TWD 40,000? I guess from what management just said, it is not as easy or straightforward. My second part of the question is, should we use 2.3 million? What total outstanding policy number should we use if we try to quantify some claim number for the year?
I think for the full year estimate, it's always a moving number. Yeah. What we can show is the investment is the actual results that we see so far. Yeah. We show it the market. We talk about the current effective number, and also we talk about after the peak, it's likely to come down to 55 million in third quarter in terms of the effective policy number. It actually come with a pattern. It's not a fixed number. Yeah. I think what the management we can do is we will disclose on a timely basis. Going forward every month, we will disclose the claim amount, the claim cases, so that I think the market can get up-to-date result.
Okay.
Okay. I think your third question is regarding the Embedded Value's assumption. I will have Grace to reply on that.
Okay. On page 42, it mentioned economic assumption change is only TWD 0.1 billion, while the interest rate curve seems slightly increased. The economic assumption change here actually includes two effects from the economic part. The first of all is the portfolio return assumption, which is positive TWD 2.9 billion. The negative side is from the currency, the NTD appreciation, which is negative TWD 2.8 billion. The combined result is TWD 0.1 billion. In terms of the percentage change, the portfolio return assumption increased the better interest by 0.6 percentage, and the currency effect reduced by 26%. The net-net, near zero.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question is from Jemmy Huang, JPMorgan. Go ahead, please.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Also a couple of questions here. First one also related to the COVID policy. I think in the Chinese session you mentioned that based on your estimate, the Fubon Insurance don't need any capital injection. Can I try to clarify, that means based on your estimation, the RBC ratio, after all these potential claims can stay above 200% or stay above 250%, based on your estimate? Then this kind of estimate, would you view this as a base case estimate or a fair case estimate? Then when you do this calculation, do you take into account any potential release of the special reserve or not? My second question on COVID-related policy is that even though you mentioned by the end of third quarter, the effective policies will be down to 1.55 million.
When we look at the potential claims, should we look at the total outstanding policies you sold or look at the effective policy? My question here is because if I got infected, I have two years period of time to make my claim. Even if your effective policy down to 55 million by third quarter. The expired policies, the mature policies, they still have the right to make claims. Just try to make sure my understanding is right on this front. The second question is on the banking side. I think you invest the notices on LINE Bank. I would assume the profit or loss contribution from LINE Bank is using equity method. It shouldn't just happen in the first quarter this year, but already happened over the past couple of quarters already.
Over the past couple of quarters, other income at Taipei Fubon Bank is a couple of hundred million every quarter. In addition to the investment losses, is there any other reason to contribute to the negative figures on other income at Taipei Fubon Bank this quarter? My third question is also on Embedded Value. From your cost of capital increase by more than 20% year-on-year, how much is due to the increase in the interest rate risk? If we excluding that, what is the underlying cost of capital increase on the year-on-year basis? Thanks.
Okay. Thank you, Jemmy. We will have our P&C's management team reply first. Thank you.
At this moment, we don't have plans to inject capital. Considering end of last year, our RBC ratio is 369%. This year, first quarter, our RBC ratio is 382%. Also we have combined assets. It's TWD 129 billion. Our net worth is TWD 41.5 billion. Our cash and equivalent cash is TWD 118 billion. Consider our April and May paid claim. At April, we paid TWD 140 million claim, and we reserved claim reserves, TWD 280 million. That include outstanding loss in IBNR reserve. Already reflect the potential claims in April. In the first two weeks of May, our paid claim is TWD 390 m illion. Based on the daily paid claim, we don't have pressure to inject our capital. You know the peak may occur in May and June. We will evaluate when our second quarter financial statement, we will check our RBC ratio, whether it's suitable.
Of course, we will maintain our sufficient capital, and evaluate at that time. At this time being, we don't have plan to inject capital.
For the policy we issued last year, the peak is on May, it's around 1.3 billion. On June and July is around 0.6 billion. That means that this month, there will be 1.3 billion policy will be expired. Next month, the other 0.6 million policy are expired. Total, up to the third quarter, the effective policy is 1.5 billion.
I think, Jemmy, you asked about the hurdle RBC rate, right? In our assessment, I think basically we still follow 200% as the hurdle from the insurance bureau's perspective.
Our policy issued all one year's policy. The last year effective policy will expire. In July, we estimate we have 1.55 million effective case. That's one year policy.
Jemmy, for the P&C part, is it okay with you?
Okay. Can I follow up on one question? All the claims that you received so far, is there any rough split between the infected cases, hospitalization cases, versus the quarantine cases? Is there any rough split?
One infected, seven quarantined, and 0.5 hospital.
I see. Thank you.
That's our P&C part, next let's move on to banking part. Roman, please.
Hi, Jemmy. Thank you for your question regarding the other income. The other income in first quarter together is TWD 3 billion. It combines TWD 2.8 billion profit purchase gain from our investment in Hyundai Credit Card, the TWD 200 million net investment gain from our investment in Fubon China, LINE Pay, and the net of the losses from LINE Bank Taiwan. That's basically the combination of our other income of TWD 3 billion.
Next, Grace, please.
For cost of capital increase, there are couple of reasons behind that. First of all, is the increase of our portfolio, because in our investment portfolio at the end of the year 2021, the stock position is much increased, not only from the new investment in equity, but also about appreciation of unrealized capital gain for the equity position. In terms of using the countercyclical risk factor charge, the cost of capital increase account for some big parts of the COC increase. For the interest rate increase, we used the new regulation, and this also contribute about mid-single digit impact for our 24% change. Firstly, I would like to say the bigger part is, first of all, our investment portfolio. The second part is because the policy natural growth. The Value of In-Force becomes bigger from year to another year. Hope this answers your questions.
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, operator, we can move on to next question. Thank you.
Of course. Thank you. The next question is coming from Alex Ye of UBS. Go ahead, please.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. My first question is on your pandemic insurance policy. There's some discussion that the CDC might downgrade the category of the COVID from current level 5 to level 4 of pandemic diseases in the future. I'm wondering, in your terms of your policy, does the payout relate to what category of pandemic of the COVID is classified into? Would that reclassification help your claim pressure? Second, on the bank part. The non-NTD loans, the growth was weak, and now I'm wondering what are the reason behind, and do we expect your overseas operation to see a pickup in the loan demand and growth in second half? Thank you.
If we'll not change downgrade, the claim will not change according to the policy.
The banking business. Roman, please.
Our NTD loan growth in the first quarter was 16%, still remain high. I think what you are referring to should be the foreign currency denominated loans. Yes. In terms of the year-over-year growth number, the foreign currency denominated loan growth is - 7%. For the reason that from last year, because of the market situation restructure our foreign currency denominated loan portfolio. However, if we use quarter-over-quarter numbers, our foreign currency denominated loan portfolio increased by 13% in first quarter this year. If you need a projection for the whole year, I think for the whole year, our foreign currency denominated loan portfolio will increase by low teens this year.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we're now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask the question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
Okay, operator, if there is no further questions, then can you please confirm again?
Sure. If you would like to ask the question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in this call today. Welcome to contact our IR team if you have further questions. Thank you.