Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) is eyeing the Southeast Asian market to expand its operations, SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday.
The bank has only one branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and a representative office in Hanoi, Chu said.
The bank has targeted another location and submitted an application to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Bank SinoPac president Eric Chuang (莊銘福) said, declining to reveal the location.
The bank has four branches in China, following the opening of a branch in Chengdu last week.
While the first three branches — in Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou — have allowed the bank to approach Taiwanese companies with operations in east China, the fourth branch is “the last piece of the puzzle” and enables the bank to do business with firms and retail clients in northwest China, Chu said.
China’s economic growth slowed to 6 percent last quarter and is forecast to continue decelerating next year, but Chu said the Chinese economy would still grow faster than 5 percent annually over the next few years.
Net profit rise 2.5 percent annually to NT$7.93 billion (US$260.67 million) for the first three quarters of this year, the highest since 2014, company data showed.
That was attributable to an annual increase of 18.9 percent in net fee income totaling NT$5.09 billion over the period, thanks to lending and wealth management businesses, which both reported double-digit percentage growth in fee income, Chuang said.
The bank’s net interest margin, a critical gauge of a bank’s profitability, had risen 2.2 basis points annually to 0.99 percent as of the end of September, driven by corporate loan growth, he said.
SinoPac Securities Corp (永豐金證券) reported cumulative net profit of NT$1.4 billion for the first three quarters, up 141.7 percent year-on-year and the highest over the past decade, thanks to rising fee income and a booming wealth management business, it said.
Overall, SinoPac Financial saw its cumulative net profit grow 20.5 percent annually in the first three quarters to NT$9.55 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.85, Chu said.
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