Members of the Financial Technology Consulting Committee yesterday clashed over an initiative aimed at accelerating development to ensure that the nation is prepared for changes as the global market increases the digitization of financial services.
The Financial Supervisory Commission in September formed a new office, along with a consulting committee made up of 15 to 20 experts drawn from the financial and technology sectors, to oversee the integration of resources for boosting development of financial technology (fintech), a crucial emerging industry that would enable the nation to maintain its competitiveness amid the “Bank 3.0” shift.
As of yesterday, NT$200 million (US$6.11 million) of a planned NT$1 billion fund earmarked for the endeavor had been collected from financial-sector companies, the commission said.
However, because the major contributors to the fund are financial companies, a number of committee members expressed concerns that the arrangement might only cater to the financial institutions while neglecting the needs of the technology sector and electronic commerce companies.
“In my view, Taiwan’s financial firms have been operating in a coddled environment, they are like sheep, but wolves are needed right now as we prepare for the immense changes on the horizon,” National Taiwan University of Science and Technology professor Lu Hsi-peng (盧希鵬) said.
“While Internet-based payment transactions are critical to the business model for multiplayer online games, in banks’ eyes it is just an additional offering to its existing services, they simply do not have the hunger to propel the sort of destructive innovation required for change,” Lu said.
Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said that the amount of money is not the issue and that priority should be given to enlisting the right team.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
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