A noble metal-coated silver bonding wire suppresses corrosion at the bonding interface under severe conditions of high temperature and high humidity, and the noble metal-coated silver bonding wire can be ball-bonded in the air. The noble metal-coated silver wire for ball bonding is a noble metal-coated silver wire including 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 a palladium intermediate layer and a gold skin layer, the palladium content relative to the entire wire is 0.01 mass % or more and 5.0 mass % or less, the gold content relative to the entire wire is 1.0 mass % or more and 6.0 mass % or less, and the sulfur group element content relative to the entire wire is 0.1 mass ppm or more and 100 mass ppm or less.