The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has approved an application from Credit Suisse to exit the local market.
Officials from the FSC said on Friday the exit had been approved because the commission expected the withdrawal would not impose any adverse impact on Taiwan’s banking system.
The Credit Suisse Taipei branch was established in 2009 with NT$250 million (US$8.36 million) in working capital, so it is unlikely the bank would move more than this amount overseas the FSC said.
The officials said Credit Suisse Taipei accounts for only 0.04 percent of the total assets of the local banking system.
Credit Suisse, the second-largest bank in Switzerland, filed the application late last year as financial turmoil from the escalating debt crisis in the eurozone forced the bank to rethink its strategy for global expansion.
Its Taipei branch largely depended on fixed-income and derivative transactions and was not involved in the trust business or offshore banking business, according to the FSC.
Market analysts said the fixed income division of the Taipei branch had just begun to be profitable, but the bank wanted to close down less profitable operations.
According to foreign wire services, Credit Suisse’s headquarters announced plans in November to reduce some risk-weighted assets of its fixed income division to improve the bank’s bottom line, while cutting about 1,500 jobs.
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