In a bid to promote the nation's fledgling offshore bond market, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday that it planned to allow branches of qualified foreign financial institutions to issue bonds on the foreign-currency denominated bourse.
According to current practice, only headquarters of publicly traded overseas financial institutions are eligible to issue bonds on the offshore bonds exchange, named Formosa Bond.
The relaxation in regulations will, for example, allow Deutsche Bank's London branch to issue bonds on the offshore exchange, the commission said.
The financial regulator is also considering allowing subsidiaries of foreign firms listed on the 18 bourses worldwide that are partners to the Taiwan Stock Exchange -- including the New York Stock Exchange -- to make their initial offering of corporate bonds on Taiwan's offshore bourse.
HSBC Ltd said earlier this month that it planned to issue the offshore market's third batch of foreign currency-denominated bonds worth around NT$8.6 billion by the end of the second quarter.
Deutsche Bank is the first issuer with US$250 million in bonds, followed by BNP Paribas' maximum of A$500 million.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
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