Chairman of Land Bank aims for fast privatization

The management reshuffle at state-run banks continued yesterday with Tsai Jer-shyong (蔡哲雄) taking up the chairmanship of the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) and Hung San-hsiung (洪三雄) heading the Taiwan Financial Asset Services Corp (TFASC).

Tsai, 49, is a former president of First Financial Holding Co (第一金控). Yesterday he vowed to accelerate privatization of the state-run bank and to speed up a merger with the Central Trust of China (中信局) before expanding into a financial holding company.

"[My] goal is to raise the bank's market share from the current 8 percent to about 15 percent to maintain the viability and the competitiveness of the nation's megabanks," Tsai said.

Tsai has replaced Wei Chi-lin (魏啟林) to head the Land Bank, which reported a 5.92 percent non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in the first three months of this year.

Local banks posted an average NPL ratio of 4.4 percent during the same period, the central bank said earlier this week.

The bank is also facing a declining number of customers in a market with 14 financial holding companies competing head-to-head.

In order to enhance the state-run bank's capacity to retain clients, Tsai said that he plans to take full advantage of existing clients, who have borrowed a total of NT$600 billion in home mortgages, as a potential clientele for the future sale of new financial products such as insurance and equities.

"We aim to create a new business model to expand our client base," he added.

Tsai also vowed to enhance the bank's offshore businesses in the region by meeting the financial needs of Taiwanese businesses based in China.

The land bank will soon submit an application to turn its liaison office in Hong Kong into a branch office. It is also waiting for cross-strait financial restrictions to be relaxed so that it can upgrade its Shanghai liaison office into a branch, he said.

TFASC chairman Hung, 55, who replaces Edward Chien (簡弘道), is a former vice chairman of the power-switching supplier Hotai Corp (和泰電機).

Yesterday he said he hoped to make use of his financial expertise to help accelerate the writing-off of the nation's non-performing collaterals.

According to the TFASC, Hung served at the state-owned Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) before working in the private sector.

He also played a vital role with the Cathay Trust Group (國泰信託集團), which took over Tainan Business Bank (台南企銀) in 1984, facilitating the nation's first bank merger.