State-run Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co (合庫金控) yesterday said it would hire 450 employees in the first half of this year to meet business demand as it seeks to bolster operations at home and abroad.
The bank-focused conglomerate made the plan known after hiring 285 employees last month and giving staff an average pay raise of 5.8 percent to retain talent and help stimulate domestic demand.
“Taiwan Cooperative Financial aims to expand its reach in Taiwan and on the world stage,” chairman Lei Chung-dar (雷仲達) said.
In particular, it would continue to support the government’s New Southbound Policy and increase its presence in Southeast Asia to create a win-win situation for customers and Taiwan Cooperative Financial, Lei said.
Lei, who took over as chairman on Nov. 24 last year, said the company managed to post a net income of NT$12.89 billion (US$439.3 million) for last year, or earnings per share of NT$1.48, despite a spike in bad loans linked to Kaohsiung-based Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船).
Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), the group’s main subsidiary and source of income, last year wrote off NT$1.71 billion in defaults for its share in the syndicated loan of NT$20.5 billion to Ching Fu.
The Ching Fu scandal has prompted the Ministry of Finance to replace top executives at Taiwan Cooperative Financial, First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) and Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀).
The Financial Supervisory Commission also handed down fines of between NT$2 million and NT$4 million to Ching Fu’s creditor banks for loose lending operations.
In addition, Taiwan Cooperative Bank recognized an extra bad debt of NT$1.63 billion to TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空).
Taiwan Cooperative Bank, which has the greatest number of branches in Taiwan, would beef up corporate governance while pursuing business growth, Lei said.
New employees would receive a monthly salary of NT$34,000 as trainees and receive NT$700,000 in annual compensation as regular staff, the company said, adding that it is in need of people with international financing, legal compliance, information security, computer system and customer service skills.
Taiwan Cooperative Bank last year opened branches and outlets in Changsha, China; Melbourne, Australia; and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The bank plans to set up more outlets in Cambodia and increase its total number of overseas offices to 22, the company said, adding that its coverage ratio rose from 321.27 percent in late 2016 to 366.39 in December last year, while its capital adequacy improved to 13.42 percent, suggesting better asset quality.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS