Three major Taiwanese banks yesterday signed a cooperation agreement with a Chinese state-controlled peer in the hope of taking advantage of its numerous branches to expedite expansion across the Taiwan Strait.
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商銀), the banking units of Cathay Financial Holdings Co (國泰金控) and Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) respectively, as well as Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), signed separate memorandums of understanding (MOU) with Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank, 中國農業銀行) in Taipei to pave the way for cooperation in corporate lending, bancassurance, retail banking and personnel training.
AgBank chairman Xiang Junbo (項俊波) inked the agreements personally with his counterparts of the three Taiwanese lenders at each bank’s respective headquarters.
Cathay Bank expects the pact to facilitate its expansion in China because AgBank provides corporate and consumer banking, underwriting and other services through a massive network at 23,500 outlets throughout China, the lender said in a statement.
Mega Bank, which is waiting for approval from China to establish a branch in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, expressed in a statement that the memorandum would help speed up its development in the market.
Taiwan Cooperative Bank, which has the largest number of branches throughout Taiwan, expects the agreement to serve as a foundation on which the two lenders can join hands and strengthen bilateral ties in the Greater China area.
AgBank is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and was ranked 141st on the global Fortune 500 list of companies last year.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
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
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS