In a major corporate banking coup, Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信銀金控) stole the world's largest financial-service company's country officer in Taiwan, along with 19 of his top staff, Citibank NA confirmed yesterday.
"A total of 20 senior staff left the bank, including former country officer Eric Chen (陳聖德)," Chan Tze-ching (陳子政), new country officer of Citigroup Taiwan, said at a press conference yesterday.
The impact on the world's biggest financial group, which employs 2,500 staff in Taiwan and over 20,000 in Asia, should be minimal, added Chan, who took up his new post on Monday.
Getting an upper hand in the quest for talent, Chinatrust Financial recruited Chen and his team to manage its banking subsidiary, hoping the new appointment will bolster its corporate banking and capital market business.
On Wednesday, Chen was named as president of both Chinatrust Commercial Bank (
Jerry Harn (韓蔚廷) was named general manager of Chinatrust's corporate banking group, and John Li (李鐘培), became general manager of Chinatrust's capital market group.
Facing a severe talent loss, Chan said to quickly make up for the sudden void with top-tier executives.
Revealing its corporate localization policy, Chan said that the bank hopes to "nurture a Taiwanese banker" from within the group to be capable of heading the bank in a few years, while also locating other suitable replacements.
"With a rich talent pool, Citibank doesn't need to go head-hunting to find a qualified country manager and other replacements," Chan said.
He believes that many bankers dream of working at Citigroup.
Chan said that he befriended Chen over 20 years ago and sees him now as "both a good friend and business competitor."
Chan, 46, joined Citibank Hong Kong in 1980. After serving various positions in finance, operations, investment and corporate banking in both Hong Kong and Japan, he was given the position of Citigroup's country officer for Hong Kong in 1999.
"I am confident that my experience in Hong Kong will help expand the bank's market in retail and corporate banking business here," he said.
The local banking sector plays an important role in the greater China market, he said.
The group also plans to increase its China-bound investment so as to serve Taiwanese doing business there, Chan said.
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],”
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
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