Standard & Poor's (S&P) Ratings Services announced yesterday that it has raised its outlook for Chinatrust Commercial Bank (
"The larger private-sector banks in Taiwan continue to challenge government-linked banks for market position. Among the more successful private-sector banks are Chinatrust Commercial Bank and Bank SinoPac," S&P said in a statement released yesterday.
Chinatrust Commercial is poised to benefit from its strengthening business franchise, while Bank Sinopac's business profile has improved in terms of an increased diversification of revenue sources and market share, the ratings firm said.
As a result, S&P revised its outlook on Chinatrust Commercial Bank's long-term counterparty credit rating to "BBB+" positive from stable, and raised its counterparty credit ratings on Bank Sinopac to "BBB/A-2" from "BBB-/A-3," with a stable outlook.
Accordingly, S&P also raised its outlook rating for Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (
The ratings firm also upgraded its long-term counterparty credit ratings on SinoPac Financial Holdings (
Last week, Fitch Ratings reaffirmed its "stable" outlook rating for SinoPac Financial after its takeover of International Bank of Taipei (
The merger is expected to boost the financial holding company's assets to about NT$1 trillion (US$31.3 billion) and lift its share of the loan and deposit market in Taiwan to 3.6 percent after the deal is completed next year.
Meanwhile, S&P said it is notable that government-linked banks have also sought to improve their performance, and singled out Farmers Bank of China (
S&P raised the bank's long-term counterparty credit rating to "BB+" from "BB" with a stable outlook.
The highest rated bank in Taiwan remains the wholly government-owned Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), the ratings firm 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
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