China has approved applications from four Taiwanese banks to set up branches there after the two sides agreed in June to grant market access to each other’s banking sectors under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
“We just learned that China approved the first batch of four domestic banks’ applications to open branches,” FSC Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) told a media briefing.
The four lenders are Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) and Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行).
The four lenders may start to conduct Chinese yuan business one year after proving profitable, Chen said. Local banks have pressed for greater cross-strait banking deregulation, noting that a branch can only take deposits of more than 1 million yuan (US$148,699), among other limitations.
The commission did not comment on the application by the Bank of China (中國銀行) and Bank of Communications (交通銀行) to open representative offices in Taiwan.
So far, more Taiwanese banks have expressed interest in cross-strait expansion because the playing field here is crowded and fragmented.
The commission yesterday gave the go-ahead to Chinatrust Financial Holding Co’s (中信金控) application to open a branch in Shanghai, bringing the total number of applicants to seven.
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), a subsidiary of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), and Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), the banking arm of Hua Nan Financial Holdings Co (華南金控), also have gained the commission’s approval for their expansion plans in China.
In related developments, Chen said the commission expected US insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG) to respond positively to the commission’s suggestion that it keep operating its Taiwanese unit, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), reiterating that the commission would help protect the rights and benefits of Nan Shan employees and customers if asked to do so.
The commission on Aug. 31 rejected AIG’s plan to sell Nan Shan to Hong Kong buyers — China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團) and Primus Financial Holdings Ltd (博智金融) — on grounds that the consortium lacked the funding for future capital increases or the long-term commitment to operate Nan Shan.
Also yesterday, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) said its banking unit, Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bank of Nanjing (南京銀行) to develop professional capabilities and exchange industry research. The bank earlier expressed strong interest in tapping into the Chinese market, but preferred a cautious approach.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day