Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) said yesterday it had won approval from China to conduct yuan-based business with Taiwanese-invested companies.
The banking arm of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), which upgraded its representative office in Shanghai to a branch in October 2010, said in a statement that it received the approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) on Friday.
The announcement made Cathay United the second Taiwanese lender to offer yuan-based financial services to China-based Taiwanese firms after Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), which in May began offering yuan-denominated financial products and services at its Shenzhen branch.
Thus far, 10 Taiwanese banks have opened branches in China and some of them are qualified to conduct yuan business with China-based Taiwanese firms through their branches as they have recorded a profit for a full fiscal year.
However, only Hua Nan and Cathay United have received licenses to do so.
As of June 30, Cathay United’s Shanghai branch reported pretax income of US$4.45 million, compared with US$2.79 million for the whole of last year, acccording to the bank.
The Shanghai branch, which has working capital of 1 billion yuan (US$158.5 million), plans to apply to the CBRC next year to expand its yuan-based business to individuals in China and hopes to make the service available to all businesses there rather than just Taiwanese-invested firms, the statement said.
In addition, the Taipei-based lender said it aimed to increase the scope of its cross-border financial services and open more Chinese branches to better serve Taiwanese businesses there, according to the statement.
FUBON FINANCIAL
Separately, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) yesterday declined to comment on local media reports that it is close to a deal to acquire a majority share in First Sino Bank (華一銀行) to accelerate its business expansion in China.
Chinese-language newspapers the Commercial Times, the Economic Daily News and the United Daily News all ran what was essentially the same front-page story that Fubon Financial might beat rival Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) to gain control of China’s First Sino Bank by acquiring a 51 percent stake for up to NT$20 billion (US$681 million).
Major shareholders of First Sino Bank include Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (浦東銀行), which holds a 30 percent share, Lotus Worldwide Ltd (蓮花國際), which was mainly invested by Taiwanese footwear products maker Pou Chen Group (寶成集團), which holds 60 percent of the shares, and Hong Kong-based Wing Hang Bank Ltd (永亨銀行), with a shareholding of about 5 percent.
The reports said Pou Chen Group plans to sell all of its shareholding in First Sino Bank to Fubon Financial, a claim the Taiwanese firm denied in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained