Chinatrust Commercial Bank (
Chinatrust wants a partner with insurance expertise to help it sell more products to its customers and has discussed forming a company to sell life insurance and investment products, said Jason Wang, the company's chief financial officer.
"We have local connections and customers," Wang said in an interview. "What we need is foreign expertise."
Chinatrust is seeking new revenue sources as its non-performing loans increase. It forecasts pretax earnings will fall to less than NT$5 billion (US$147 million) in the six months to June 30 from NT$5.6 billion last year as it sets aside 1.3 percent of the value of its total assets this year to cover bad loans, up from 0.8 percent last year. The bank's NT$500 billion in total lending is split evenly between companies and individuals.
William Courtauld, chief executive of Fortis Bank in Asia, said Belgium's largest financial services group has held talks with a number of companies in the region.
"We're combing the region with a specific bancassurance-oriented strategy," Courtauld said yesterday.
Chinatrust isn't interested in acquiring another Taiwan bank, securities company or asset management firm at this stage, Wang said. The company may change into a holding company once the Financial Holding Company Act is passed, allowing banks, insurers and brokerages to form single corporate structures.
"Their strategy is grow their businesses, they don't have a very aggressive acquisition plan," said Rachel Wu, an analyst at UBS Warburg Securities Ltd in Taiwan.
Chinatrust's shares fell NT$0.10, or 0.4 percent, to NT$25.10.
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