Seeking to enhance the company's brand name and secure a bigger market share in Taiwan's saturated credit-card market, the UK-based Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) yesterday presented what it called "exciting" incentives yesterday to lure card applicants.
"Our market share [in credit cards] is small. But this is exactly our competitive edge, because it's much easier for us to find new customers, compared with most domestic banks," Tiger Chan (
HSBC, the second largest foreign bank in Taiwan, had nearly 800,000 credit cards in circulation as of the end of last month, according to the latest figure provided by the Financial Supervisory Commission. It holds a tiny 1.8 percent market share among the nation's 52 card issuers.
Restricted by their small number of branches and limited resources to promote financial tools for consumers, foreign banks have issued a total of around 4 million credit cards in Taiwan, a market share of 9 percent.
"Since Taiwan has 10 million adults qualified to hold credit cards, we see the [remaining] 6 million people -- who have not been approached by foreign banks -- as our potential targets," Chan said.
With an ambitious goal of attracting 300,000 new cardholders in five months, HSBC is using entrance tickets to Hong Kong Disneyland, which is scheduled to open its doors for business in September, as an incentive.
Described by Chan as a "bomb dropped in deep water," the promotional activity, which will run till the end of August, offers tickets to clients who succeed in getting three new people to sign up for HSBC credit cards. Those who refer 10 new clients are being offered a round-trip Cathay Pacific Airways plane ticket to Hong Kong, in addition to the theme-park ticket.
HSBC's campaign underlines the increasing difficulty banks are facing to expand their credit-card business.
Figures released by the Financial Supervisory Commission show that banks issued a total of 630,000 new cards last month, although 480,000 cards were suspended during the same period. The suspension ratio of 76 percent reflects the soaring costs financial institutions have to bear.
"It's indeed becoming more and more difficult to launch new cards," said Michael Chang (
Aside from issuing new cards, Chinatrust has also focused on boosting its clients' usage of credit cards by promoting revolving credit plans and installment schemes, Chang said.
Union Bank of Taiwan (
"As office workers have become a saturated market, we are devising co-branded cards to get in touch with new clients, which allows us to cultivate small but new markets," said Meiji Chen (
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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