■ BankingCards may be restricted
Taiwan may restrict banks, which count more than 8 percent of their credit card loans as bad, from issuing new cards, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, citing an unidentified Finance Ministry official. The government, in a move to boost supervision of the competitive credit card business, may also give a warning to banks with 3 percent to 5 percent non-performing loans, the paper said. A total of 67.9 million credit cards have been issued on the island of 23 million people. Of those, 36.6 million cards were in circulation as of October, according to the Bureau of Monetary Affairs.
■ Labor
Migrant workers need help
More needs to be done to help China's tens of millions of migrant workers get their overdue wages, a leading politician was quoted as saying by state media yesterday. Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan made the remark in a teleconference Friday as he urged local governments to make sure construction businesses -- a big employer of migrant labor -- do not exploit workers, Xinhua news agency said. Some regions have fallen far behind in their payments and the mechanism coordinating different departments needs to be improved, Xinhua said, quoting Zeng. The issue is particularly urgent because many of China's estimated 94 million migrant workers are planning to go home for the Chinese Lunar New Year Festival later this month. State media reported late last year that China's migrant workers were owed some 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion) in unpaid wages.
■ Securities
BAS facing civil suit
The securities unit of Bank of America Corp (BAS) said Friday that it could be facing civil action from the US Securities and Exchange Commission relating to its trading activities. The Charlotte-based bank said it received notification from the SEC's enforcement division that agency staff is considering recommending civil injunctive action against the bank's securities subsidiary. "The staff has not made a formal enforcement recommendation to the SEC," Bank of America said in a statement. "BAS is cooperating fully with the inquiry and is submitting reasons why it does not believe an action should be brought." The allegations arose out of an SEC inquiry that began more than two years ago into trading activities in the firm's San Francisco office, the bank said.
■ Automobiles
Mazda boosts China stake
Major Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corp is hoping to grab 5 percent of China's rapidly growing car market by setting up a sales holding company and production firm, a news report said yesterday. Mazda, owned 33.3 percent by US auto giant Ford Motor, is projecting the production and sale of 200,000 vehicles in China by 2007, raising its market share from 3 percent, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The sales holding company will oversee sales of three passenger vehicles produced by FAW Car Co and FAW Hainan Motor Co, subsidiaries of Mazda's partner the First Auto Work Group Corp, the newspaper said. It will also oversee sales of locally manufactured Mazda vehicles. Mazda and Ford will begin joint production of vehicles by 2007, the paper said, adding that further details of the production firm have not been decided. Mazda and Ford, however, are likely each to take a 25 percent stake in the firm, with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co contributing the remaining capital.
RSS