BANKING
FSC fines Jih Sun over theft
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Jih Sun International Bank (日盛銀行) NT$6 million (US$191,816) after one of its employees was found to have misappropriated clients’ funds. The worker’s actions were a violation of the Banking Act (銀行法) and compromised the sustainable operation of the bank, the commission said. The commission ordered the bank to fire the employee and barred the lender from selling mortgage and insurance products for six months. The commission said that 17 clients were targeted by the rogue employee, who misappropriated more than NT$40 million over the past four years.
BANKING
Mega to improve controls
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) is to improve risk controls while maintaining its top position in profitability and asset quality in the local market, newly appointed chairman Shiu Kuang-si (徐光曦) said yesterday. Shiu, who was over the past two years chairman of Land Bank of Taiwan (土銀) and Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控), assumed the chairmanship of Mega Financial to fill the vacancy left by Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才) in April.
BANKING
ANZ appoints new economist
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) yesterday appointed Hong Kong-based economist Raymond Yeung (楊宇霆) as its chief economist for Greater China. Yeung joined ANZ in 2010 as a senior economist of the region and has been the acting chief economist since March. He is to lead ANZ’s research team in providing macroeconomic analysis about the Chinese economy, as well as for Taiwan and Hong Kong, with a focus on monetary policy and the financial liberalization of China. Prior to joining ANZ, Yeung worked as deputy head of research in Hong Kong at Swiss Reinsurance Co Ltd. He received his doctorate in economics from Queen’s University in Canada in 1999.
CHIPMAKERS
Winbond takes out loan
Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) on Monday said that it has taken out a syndicated loan worth NT$12 billion with 17 lenders. The loan is to help the chipmaker complete technology upgrades and a capacity expansion at a plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park. The company expects the upgraded plant to start manufacturing chips in the third quarter of next year. The loan was oversubscribed, Winbond said. Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and CTBC Bank Co Ltd (中信銀行) were among the lenders that subscribed to the loan. The loan is also to be used to build new facilities, buy equipment and repay other bank loans, Winbond said.
LOGISTICS
THI Global income plunges
THI Global Holdings Corp (台驊國際投資控股), a freight-forwarder and logistics operator, yesterday reported that net income in the first six months of this year fell 63 percent year-on-year to NT$53.72 million, compared with NT$145.52 million in the same period a year ago, amid a global economic slowdown that has kept demand low for the international logistics company. Consolidated sales in the first half fell 8.7 percent from NT$4.99 billion a year earlier to NT$4.55 billion, the company said. Earnings per share were NT$0.51, lower than the NT$1.33 recorded a year ago.
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant
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