Bankers nominate head of financial asset committee

The Bankers Association (銀行公會) yesterday named a former Cabinet secretary-general to chair its financial asset service company's (FASC, 金融資產 服務公司) preparatory committee.

The new nominee -- Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) chairman Wei Chi-lin (魏啟林) -- served under former Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長).

The meeting also decided to apply for corporate registration from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (經濟部) before the end of March.

The new company will serve mainly as an impartial third party in the disposal of bad assets by asset management companies or the regulatory authorities.

After the Legislative Yuan passed the Financial Institutions Merger Law (金融機構合併法) and set up the mechanisms for an asset management company to dispose of problematic assets held by the banking industry, the finance ministry asked the Bankers Association to set up a financial assets service company to act as an impartial third party during the auctioning procedure.

The preparatory meeting named a total of five members to its board, including Wei and four bank chairmen; two other seats would be left for foreign investors.

According to the resolution of the meeting, the capital of the first FASC is set at NT$2 billion, funded by 15 domestic banks and foreign investors. The initial capital outlay has been set at NT$1.5 billion and each domestic bank shareholder would supply NT$100 million. Two thirds of the NT$1.5 billion capital will be drawn from shareholders in the FASC, and the remaining one-third from foreign investors.

Several foreign investment banks have expressed interest in participating in the first FASC, including Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Japan's Orix.