"Shieh was appointed by the Ministry of Finance, which means that the government is still his biggest boss," he said.
Hsieh said that historically most state-run banks have served political purposes, facilitating sweetheart loans to government-favored businesses, leadiong to high non-performing loan ratios among state-run banks.
As Jerome Chen had previously boasted of completing the bank's internationalization plan in the near future, doubts were cast yesterday whether Shieh is capable of leading the bank to branch into international markets.
But Lan yesterday said that the internationalization plan remains to be a long-term goal, which is currently irrelevant to Shieh's abilities.
"The imminent priority for First Financial is to launch innovative products, improve financial transparency and enhance its cross-selling capabilities," Lan said.
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