Fubon Commercial Bank (
As the 33rd bank to move into the local cash-advance business, Fubon will be the first cash-advance card issuer that waives the NT$100 transaction fee for the first year.
Cash-advance cards allow cardholders to borrow money without collateral through ATMs. The business began in 1999 when Cosmos Bank Taiwan (
"We're targeting white-collar workers aged between 25 and 40 who are capable of repaying loans," said former TaipeiBank CEO Jesse Ding (
Fubon had previously refused to enter the cash-advance market, but Ding yesterday said the bank changed its mind on the grounds that the market had greatly matured in terms of reducing credit risk.
Estimating that the size of the cash-advance market would reach between NT$300 billion and NT$400 billion per year, Fubon president James Wu (吳均龐) said the banks are aiming to take up a sizable share of the market in the near future.
"The marketplace is packed with too many smaller rivals, whom we are confident of outperforming," Wu said.
He declined to offer a prediction for the banks' cash-advance card's first year in circulation.
However, a bank manager who asked to remain anonymous said the lender shouldn't have a problem issuing between 100,000 and 200,000 cards by the end of the year.
Wu said the banks would offer loans up to NT$300,000, which could be raised to NT$800,000 upon application, to cash-advance cardholders.
A Fubon survey showed each cardholder on average pays NT$3,600 per year to banks on three transactions a month.
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), a local arm of Standard and Poor's, warned last year that increased availability and use of credit and cash-advance cards may increase the risk of bad loans over the next two years.
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