A noble metal-coated silver bonding wire for ball bonding wire includes a noble metal coating layer on a core material made of pure silver or a silver alloy, wherein the wire contains at least one sulfur group element, the noble metal coating layer includes at least one palladium layer, the total palladium content relative to the entire wire is not less than 0.01 mass % and not more than 5.0 mass %, and the total sulfur group element content relative to the entire wire is not less than 0.1 mass ppm and not more than 100 mass ppm.