Overseas earnings of Taiwanese banks were boosted by the government’s “new southbound policy,” with their first-quarter incomes from the countries covered by the policy hitting a new high, according to data released yesterday by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).
The initiative aims to forge closer economic ties with ASEAN members, South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
In the first quarter, banks’ earnings posted in the countries targeted by the policy reached NT$1.72 billion (US$57.01 million).
The commission said that Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia ranked as the largest earnings sources for Taiwanese banks in the first quarter, with income generated in Vietnam reaching NT$700 million, while in Cambodia the figure reached NT$400 million and in Australia it was US$200 million.
The improvement in banks’ profitability also reflected the commission’s efforts to urge the state-owned Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (輸出入銀行) to provide guarantees and insurance for trade contracts, which have made banks more willing to extend loans to Taiwanese firms that cut deals with their counterparts in the region, the commission said.
The commission also said that it has encouraged banks to extend loans to Taiwanese investors operating in the “southbound” region, while urging Taiwanese firms in the region to raise funds in the local capital market
Since the beginning of the year it has also given the green light to local banking institutions that want to establish new outlets in the region to secure more loan deals, with 10 new outlets approved so far, the commission said.
Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫), Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行) and First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) obtained approval to open new branches in Cambodia, while Chang Hwa Bank and Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀) were given permission to add branches in the Philippines, it said.
Taiwan Cooperative Bank received approval for a branch in Melbourne, Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) for one representative office each in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, and the Export-Import Bank obtained permission to open an office in Mumbai, India.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to