Line Corp, creator of the Line messaging app, yesterday announced plans to set up a preparation office for Line Financial Taiwan Corp (台灣連線金融科技), which is seeking to team up with local lenders to create a digital bank.
Line regional chief Liu I-cheng (劉奕成) announced the plans at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the technology firm agreed to sell a 30 percent stake to two Taiwanese lenders.
“We aim to join hands with local financial institutions to set up Line Bank, a Web-only bank that will offer new financial services and products,” Liu said.
Photo: CNA
Line Financial would not own more than 50 percent of Line Bank and will limit the number of partners to five in keeping with local regulations, he said.
The bank is to take deposits, provide loans, and sell mutual funds and insurance policies, but will not issue credit cards, launch new financial products or establish its own securities units, he said.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has indicated room for two Internet-only lenders in the nation and is drafting rules on their requirements and operations so interested parties can file applications later this year and start services by the end of next year.
Existing Line Pay partners might not necessarily have priority to be major shareholders of Line Bank, although they might be more familiar with Line products, Liu said.
Line Pay in August 2015 entered the local e-payment market and now has 3 million users, making it the most popular e-payment platform.
The company’s board on Wednesday approved plans to sell a 19.9 percent stake to Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) for NT$3.16 billion (US$103.4 million) and a 10 percent stake to Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行) for NT$1.58 billion. The share sales need regulatory approval.
Line Pay reportedly sought unsuccessfully to sell stakes to Cathay United Bank (國泰世華), CTBC Bank (中信銀行), Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) and E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) at much higher prices.
Line Financial is to hire 150 people in fields such as legal compliance, risk management, financial technology and anti-money laundering, Liu said.
In related news, video game developer Soft-World International Corp (智冠) yesterday said its payment arm, Pay2Go Technology Corp (智付寶), has gained regulatory approval to merge with ezPay Taiwan Co (台灣電子支付) through a share swap scheme.
According to the plan, a share in Pay2Go is to be converted to one ezPay Taiwan share and the latter firm will cease to exist, Soft-World said, adding that the company will be called ezPay (簡單付).
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS