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Agricultural Bank turns down Cabinet appointee

The board of the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan (農業金庫) yesterday unexpectedly withheld approval for the appointment of Chen Ming-jen (陳明仁) as bank president, hobbling the government's latest personnel shuffles at state-run banks.

The Cabinet on Monday named Chen as bank president to fill the vacancy left by Ding Wei-hau (丁偉豪), who became chairman of a life insurer under the newly formed Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控), also as part of personnel reshuffling by the government.

"The board decided to schedule another date to discuss this personnel proposal, as some board members are concerned about procedural issues," the bank said in a statement released yesterday.

The board meeting lasted five hours and finished around 10pm last night. The 15-member board usually finishes its agenda in one hour.

"We did not expect it would take that long," company spokesman Shen Chi-nan (沈其男) said.

Chairman Huang Lee-yue (黃李越) will double as president until the board has reached a decision.

The Council of Agriculture owns 49 percent of the Agricultural Bank, which was established in May 2005.

Chen, 55, is a former president of the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (中國輸出入銀行). Before that he worked for Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行), Waterland Financial Holding Co (國票金控) and the Farmers' Association of Taiwan Province (台灣省農會).

"I am familiar with the farmers' association and I believe that there are few people with this level of expertise in the nation's banking sector," Chen told reporters yesterday.

He said his priority at the Agricultural Bank would be integrating the operations of about 1,500 farmers' and fishermen's association outlets around the nation.

"One of the major problems faced by the credit departments of farmers' and fishermen's associations is their small scale. Integration will help solve this problem," Chen said. "Japan's experience in this regard sets a good example."

The outlets should work together selling the same financial products, rather than promoting different packages as they do now, Chen said.
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