Print

Mail

wiki links

Bank official sees bright prospects for local demand

Sagging consumer confidence is the biggest challenge facing the next administration, a bank executive said yesterday.

The Presidential Office, not Wall Street, will play a greater role in turning the local economy around, Greg Gibb, chief operations officer at Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), said at a media lunch yesterday.

Gibb, formerly a managing partner at McKinsey & Co, said he had confidence in the local economy as he believed the presidential election, scheduled for March 22, would bring about "changes" in cross-strait relations and government policy.

He also sees great potential in domestic demand, with spending currently inhibited because of political concerns.

sound fundamentals

"People are just afraid of spending despite the nation's sound economic fundamentals," the Taishin executive said.

Taking the US loan market as an example, Gibb said that US consumers had reached their credit limit -- be it secured or unsecured loans -- but in Taiwan, only some 35 percent of households had taken out home mortgages, while the remainder tended to tighten their belts after putting in their life savings in property.

This represents an untapped market that the banking sector could develop, he said.

To create demand and win new customers, banks need to be "information-savvy," he said.

Banks that know their customers better or are more capable of launching innovative products" will win, he said.

Gibbs touted the success of Taishin's newly launched RT-Mart (大潤發) co-branded credit card, which attracted a six-year record high of 100,000 applications in the past two months among the hypermarket's 1.8 million members.

merger plan

Taishin, owner of the nation's third-largest credit-card issuer, yesterday also confirmed its share-swap plan with Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) was ``still alive.''

The company plans to proceed with the merger at an ``appropriate'' time, Taishin president Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝) said, but declined to comment on when the acquisition would be completed.

Lin denied a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily on Feb. 18 that Taishin may back out of the proposed merger with Chang Hwa and may sell or transfer its stake in the bank. The report did not cite a source.

Taishin, which owns 22.5 percent of Chang Hwa, has said it plans to acquire the remainder of the nation's eighth-largest bank by assets through a share swap.

The company did say on Jan. 15 that it would retract a Dec. 27 proposal to conduct the share swap with Chang Hwa after financial advisers for the two companies failed to reach an agreement.
This story has been viewed 876 times.