The Financial Supervisory Commission announced yesterday that it had fined Hsinchu International Bank (
Hsinchu International Bank received a fine of NT$2 million (US$62,559).
"Debtors can collect evidence, for example by recording phone calls, and report irregularities to the banking authority. The commission will impose severe punishment on banks that are found to have violated the regulations," commission spokesman Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正) told a press conference yesterday.
The commission has instituted probes into several lenders reported to have acted with similar impropriety, Lin said. He declined to elaborate on exactly how many lenders are under investigation, citing confidentiality amid ongoing administrative investigations.
In the case of Hsinchu International Bank, a debt collecting company employed by the bank was found to be using improper measures to scare borrowers into paying their debts. Specifically, the company was found to be making continuous phone calls day and night to a debtor to expedite his repayment. The commission found that this had seriously affected the debtor's work and life.
Given that banks are required to be responsible for the actions of their debt-collecting agents, the regulator said it had penalized the Hsinchu International Bank for its failure to oversee the debt-collection company's actions.
The non-profit Alliance for Fairness and Justice said last week that the top three worst banks in terms of debt collection were Taishin International Bank (
These three lenders are also the leading credit card issuers.
The worst offenses included harassing debtors' families, harassing debtors in the workplace and making verbal insults.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure