State-run Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), Mega Financial Holdings Co’s (兆豐金控) banking arm and main subsidiary, yesterday said it has gained Thailand’s approval to open a fifth branch that could start operations in the first half of the year.
Mega Bank, which owns 34 overseas outlets, 19 of which are in the Asia-Pacific region, said its aim is to become a regional financial service provider.
Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) and Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) have said Mega Bank stands a better chance than other state-run lenders of achieving its goal, given its longer and wider international exposure.
The bank is due to report today to the finance ministry, its largest shareholder, a plan to increase its deposits and loans market share to 12 percent, from the current 7 percent, and total assets to NT$9 trillion (US$299 billion) from NT$3.1 trillion, local media said.
It also reported that Mega Financial plans to merge with other state-run peers, such as First Financial Holding Co (第一金控), Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co (合庫金控), Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控), Changhwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) or Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), with an aim to raise its global ranking to 120th place, from 177th place now.
Shares in Mega Financial remained the same at NT$24.65 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