The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday approved applications from two Chinese lenders to set up representative offices in Taiwan, allowing them to conduct research, information gathering and other non-profit-making activities.
The approval came a week after China allowed four Taiwanese banks to open branches, in line with the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed in June to ease market access restrictions on the banking sector.
“The commission gave its go-ahead to the plans of Bank of China (中國銀行) and Bank of Communications (交通銀行) to establish representative offices in Taiwan,” said Jean Chiu (邱淑貞), deputy director-general of the FSC’s banking bureau.
Under the ECFA, Chinese lenders may apply to have their representative offices upgraded to a branch after a year, but may not turn them into subsidiaries.
By contrast, Taiwanese banks are allowed to expand in China in one of three ways — setting up branches, setting up subsidiaries or buying a stake in a Chinese lender.
Bank of China has assets of more than 9.72 trillion yuan (US$1.43 trillion), earning it a place in the Fortune Global 500 for the past 17 years. It is the second-largest lender in China after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行), while the Bank of Communications is the fifth-largest commercial lender in China, with assets of 3.71 trillion yuan as of June 30.
The two Chinese banks plan to set up their representative offices in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) and they plan to hire about 10 staffers, the commission said.
Last week, 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) won Chinese regulatory approval to open branches in China, while Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) are still awaiting Beijing’s review of their cross-strait expansion plans.
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],”
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
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