The Industrial Bank of Taiwan (IBT, 台灣工銀), one of the nation's three industrial banks, yesterday celebrated the launch of its NT$2 billion headquarters in the Neihu Science Park, Taipei City, by reporting record-high earnings for last year.
The bank's after-tax earnings more than doubled year-on-year to NT$2.02 billion (US$65.2 million), with an after-tax NT$0.84 earning per share and a 7.43 percent return on equity for last year, IBT chairman Kenneth Lo (
The 12-story structure was designed by Kevin Cook, who designed the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
"Last year's earnings were the highest since the Industrial Bank of Taiwan was established almost eight years ago," Lo said.
Unaffected by domestic defaults over unsecured consumer loans and the US' subprime crisis, the IBT secured positive gains in securities and investment ventures in the first three quarters of last year, he said.
Established in 1999 with 150 employees, the IBT now boasts NT$360 billion in assets and more than 1,000 employees, he added.
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) praised IBT's performance, while central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) lauded the bank's success in expanding into investment banking, securities brokerages and bills finance in Hong Kong, as well as its plans to tap into the Vietnamese market.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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