International Bank of Asia (港基銀行), a Hong Kong-based lender 75 percent owned by Fubon Financial Holdings Co (富邦金控), will start selling the Taiwan company's insurance products, it said in a statement.
Fubon bought the stake in International Bank in March for HK$3.24 billion (US$416 million), becoming the first lender from Taiwan to operate a branch network in Hong Kong. China only allows Taiwanese banks to open representative offices.
International Bank is betting that the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, which in June dropped the minimum assets Hong Kong- registered lenders need to open a branch in China to US$6 billion from US$20 billion, will give it an edge over foreign banks. That edge may be dulled by the end of next year, when China lifts some curbs on foreign lenders.
International Bank of Asia plans to open its first representative office in southern China this year, said Chief Executive Officer Lee Jin-yi (李晉頤).
When China joined the World Trade Organization in December 2001, it agreed to lift curbs by 2006 that prevent overseas banks from conducting retail business in China's currency, the yuan.
Foreign lenders are currently allowed to open one branch a year with assets of US$20 billion. That rule was relaxed in September to allow multiple openings in a 12-month period, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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