KGI Bank (凱基銀行), a unit of China Development Financial Holding Corp (CDFHC, 中華開發金控), will not share its financial technology (fintech) experimental business platform with Next Bank (將來銀行), in which it holds a 7 percent stake, as it thinks the Web-only bank should set up a different and independent model.
In its sandbox experiment that started in December last year and ended in August, KGI collaborated with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to deploy mobile identity authentication technology to provide loans to customers who possess no credit records and made the applications online.
The bank has gained approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to continue a pilot program from last month to March next year.
Since KGI is a shareholder of the virtual bank, it is a question if the bank would transfer its fintech service to Next Bank.
“We would keep the innovative business allowing consumers to apply for small loans via mobile devices to ourselves, while Next Bank has to run another model independently if it plans to serve this business,” CDFHC president Alan Wang (王銘陽) told the Taipei Times on the sidelines of the company’s earnings conference last week.
Given that KGI has used its own resources to set up the platform and a credit scoring model that determines an applicant’s risk factors and how much it should lend, the bank would continue to operate it, KGI Bank president Amy Tsao (曹慧姝) said.
“We believe every bank has its own lending standards, so we expect Next Bank to set up a new one itself,” Tsao added.
Next Bank director Liu I-cheng (劉奕成) yesterday said he was a bit surprised by KGI’s decision, as he thought they would be able to use KGI’s platform.
“We have not discussed this topic yet … and it might take us some time to decide if to establish another platform by ourselves. But we do think the innovative service benefits consumers and brought great convenience to all,” Liu said by telephone.
The FSC said if the two banks are to use the same platform offering loans to different consumers, it would review their business to see if they comply with regulations.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
The US said it plans to help build a first-of-its-kind industrial hub in the Philippines to boost production of inputs crucial to US supply chains. The 4,000-acre hub is intended to be “a purpose-built platform for allied manufacturing” and “an investment acceleration hub where the specific industrial activities are shaped by market demand,” the US Department of State said on Thursday. The project — touted as an “economic security zone” — would be within the Luzon Economic Corridor, a flagship economic project backed by the US and Japan on the main Philippine island. The project was also described as “the first artificial intelligence
RSS