Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) has put the merger of the two commercial banks it controls on hold following the recent change at the top of the nation’s financial regulator.
The company said in a statement yesterday that it would not raise any motion at an upcoming Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) board meeting about the proposed merger with Taishin International Bank (台新銀行).
The board meeting is scheduled to take place tomorrow.
The move indicates that Taishin Financial is postponing the merger proposal, which may help reduce tensions between Taishin Financial and the Ministry of Finance — the two major stakeholders in Chang Hwa.
“We hope the government will carefully evaluate the merger proposal while it aims to boost the global competitiveness of Taiwan’s financial sector,” Taishin Financial said in a statement, while calling on the government to focus more on integration in the financial sector.
The statement came after Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) announced on Monday that Vice Minister of Finance William Tseng (曾銘宗) would replace Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) at the helm of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). Tseng will formally take up his new post today.
In June, Chang Hwa Bank’s executive directors — mainly employees of Taishin Financial — approved a plan to start evaluating a merger of Chang Hwa and Taishin International.
“I respect and appreciate its [Taishin Financial’s] decision,” Tseng told reporters in a telephone interview.
Tseng said he hopes Taishin Financial would improve and strengthen its management.
Meanwhile, Tseng said he would be proactive rather than passive and reactive in terms of policy deregulation and formulating policies once he assumes his role at the FSC.
“I hope to help the financial sector in Taiwan raise its profile in the Asia-Pacific region over the next few years,” Tseng said, adding that state-owned banks would play an important role.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last