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.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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