The financial sector is expected to speed up its consolidation to survive in an increasingly competitive market after Fubon Financial Holding Co (
Financial institutions are aware it is time to merge or witness their profit margins being eroded and eventually wiped out in ever stiffening competition following the domestic markets opening up to meet WTO requirements.
"Banks have felt the pinch. They know they have no choice but to merge or be acquired," said Richard Tsai, head of research at Grand Cathay Securities (大 華 證 券).
Acquisitions by financial holding companies were only the first step toward further consolidation among financial holding firms, he said.
"We'll see many mergers among banks, brokerages and insurers this year and next year. I also expect to see consolidation among financial holding companies.
"The size of Taiwan's financial market can allow maintain four to five financial holding firms, but we now have about 10," he said.
Fubon Financial Holding Co announced Thursday it will buy Taipei Bank (
The deal will bring Fubon's total assets to NT$1.12 trillion.
First Commercial Bank (
"A handful of medium-size banks with sound operations and good asset quality have been targeted for acquisitions by large financial firms," Tsai said.
The government is encouraging mergers and acquisitions among financial institutions amid high non-performing loans and an overcrowded banking market.
The ratio of NPLs at domestic banks stood at 7.48 percent at the end of June, down from 8.04 percent in the previous quarter, but higher than 6.47 percent a year earlier, the central bank said Thursday. Combined with other problematic loans worth NT$1.53 trillion, the average NPL ratio at the end of June would have been 10.83 percent.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day