China Construction Bank (CCB, 中國建設銀行) yesterday opened a branch in Taipei in a bid to tap the local banking market.
CCB is the third Chinese bank to set up a branch in the city after Bank of China (中國銀行) and Bank of Communications (交通銀行).
“By opening a branch in Taipei, we aim to better serve customers and deepen cooperation with Taiwanese peers,” CCB president Zhang Jianguo (張建國) told a press conference.
PARTNERSHIPS
CCB, the second-largest Chinese bank by capitalization, has forged partnerships with 35 Taiwanese lenders.
It owns Jian Xin Life Insurance Co (建信人壽), a joint venture with Taiwan’s China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽).
The Taipei branch, located across from Taipei 101 in the city’s Xinyi District (信義), will focus on corporate banking, providing business clients with lending, deposit, trade finance and other services, Zhang said.
CCB has not stopped lending amid reports of a liquidity squeeze, he said.
NORMAL OPERATIONS
“CCB has maintained normal operations and has been able to supply funds to other banks via interbank [loans],” he added.
CCB’s loan-to-deposit ratio stands at 64 percent, lower than the statutory cap at 75 percent, Zhang said, suggesting it has comfortable room for growing outstanding loans.
CCB has embarked on aggressive overseas expansions this year, setting up a subsidiary in Russia in March and another subsidiary in Dubai last month.
EXPANSION
It plans to open branches in Canada and Luxembourg and set up an offshore unit at its branch in San Francisco.
CCB has 15 branches or subsidiaries outside of China, where it owns more than 13,600 offices.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure