In the wake of its biggest loss in 40 years last year, American Express Bank expects to return to profitability in Taiwan this year as the consumer credit abuse storm eases, the bank said yesterday.
"The bad consumer debt issue is over for us after a full write-off last year," Alex Chiang (蔣家禹), senior country executive of American Express Taiwan, told reporters .
Chiang, who took the helm at the bank last October, is the first Taiwanese head of American Express in the 40 years since its establishment in Taiwan in 1967.
The US lender incurred a deficit of NT$1.52 billion (US$46.07 million) last year, the first loss in its history in Taiwan, after booking a full write-off and reserving almost five times the amount of its soaring consumer loans, according to the Financial Supervisory Commission's data.
Meanwhile, American Express expected to see at least 10 percent growth in its revenue for this year, driven by its robust financial institutions business, which could see a 20 percent increase in sales this year, Chiang said.
Taiwan had 1.8 million overseas remittance transactions last year, up 6 percent from a year earlier, making it the second-biggest remittance market worldwide, after South Korea's 2.1 million transactions. There were more than 57 million cross-border remittance transactions worldwide last year, up 13 percent from 2005, the bank said.
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