The board of Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), a subsidiary of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), yesterday gave the go-ahead to a proposal for the bank to set up a presence in Nanjing, China — the first Taiwanese financial institution trying to cash in on the increasing number of Nanjing-based Taiwanese businesses.
“The bank believes Nanjing will be the top destination for [Taiwanese businesses] expanding into China,” Lin Keh-hsiao (林克孝), president of parent company Taishin Financial, said in a press statement. “We will get started with the preparations for setting up a branch in China.”
The move will also differentiate the bank from its peers, Beijing-bound Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行); Shanghai-bound First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) and Mega Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀); Shenzhen-bound Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行); Dongguan-bound E.SUN Commercial Bank (玉山銀行); and Xiamen-based Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), he said.
Citing the city’s statistics, Taishin said Nanjing-bound Taiwanese investments account for a sixth of the city’s total foreign direct investment, while Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊) and panel makers TPO Display Corp (統寶光電) and HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) have been among the city’s 10 biggest exporters for many years.
As of the first half of last year, Nanjing had attracted 2,600 Taiwanese companies, or 24 percent of the total number of foreign businesses in the city, with accumulated investment of US$3.17 billion, or 15 percent of total foreign direct investment, the statement said.
More than 40 of the nation’s top 100 publicly traded firms have branches in Nanjing, where Taiwanese firms employ an eighth of the city’s workforce, it said.
Lin said the bank sees the potential for Nanjing to become the hub of the service sector’s development in the Yangtze River Delta district.
In related news, Bank of Taiwan is scheduled to open its representative office in Shanghai today after having received approval from the city’s banking regulator on Wednesday.
Former manager of the bank’s Taichung branch, Yen Kuei-tien (顏圭田), will head the Shanghai office, the bank said on Friday.
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