Citibank, the most profitable foreign bank in Taiwan, yesterday unveiled its second flagship branch in Hsinchu, the nation's high-tech hub, hoping to increase its penetration in the market by offering advanced wealth management services.
"Hsinchu, home to the science park and one of the high speed rail stations, is a market with great potential," Victor Kuan (
The US bank, which 15 years ago became the first foreign lender in Hsinchu, hopes to strengthen its footing in the market by opening the relocated branch in Chupei City (竹北), Hsinchu County and places great hope in advanced wealth management services, the bank said.
The Hsinchu branch is located in a brand new, six-storey building with 700-ping (2,310m2) of floor space.
Citibank opened its first flagship branch in Banciao (
wealthy zone
The Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), which government statistics said is expected to generate NT$1.3 trillion (US$39 billion) in output this year, has made Hsinchu and its surroundings one of the nation's wealthiest regions, a development that has not escaped the attention of banks offering wealth management services.
Citibank saw double-digit growth in its wealth management sector in the first quarter, with the Hsinchu branch one of the fastest growing outlets nationwide, Kuan said.
Customers from the science park contribute 20 percent to 30 percent of their business and the ratio is rising, said Christine Yu (余靜文), vice president of Citibank's Hsinchu branch.
To lure Hsinchu-based customers -- most of whom are frequent travelers overseas -- the lender launched the Citigold Global Access service, offering clients preferential foreign exchange rates, toll-free telephone calls to Taiwan for financial advice, and access to services and facilities at over 200 branches in major Asian markets.
the race is on
Citibank's aggressive bid came after Standard Chartered Bank's buyout of Hsinchu International Bank (
The US lender followed suit and announced the acquisition of the Bank of Overseas Chinese (BOOC,
"Taiwan is one of our targeted markets in Asia and an extremely attractive market to us," said Sunil Kaul, head of Citibank's retail banking, Asia Pacific.
Through a global network and a wide range of products, added to deep local links with the local economy and its 43-year history in the country, Citibank is confident it has a competitive edge over other overseas banks operating in Taiwan, Kaul said.
Regarding integration with the BOOC, Kuan said that as many as 20 months was a reasonable period of time for two banks to integrate, as demonstrated by the merger of Taipei Bank (
The bank nevertheless hopes to accelerate the pace of integration for synergy, he said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by