Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), the banking arm of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), has extended its credit-card partnership with hypermarket operator RT-Mart (大潤發) with the aim of adding 300,000 new customers by 2020, an executive said yesterday.
The renewed alliance came as major local lenders are seeking to increase their clientele through strategic alliances with hypermarket operators.
Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) is teaming up with Costco Taiwan, CTBC Bank (中信銀行) with PXmart (全聯福利中心) and E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) with Carrefour Corp Taiwan (家樂福) to court their customers.
“We have renewed the partnership with RT-Mart for another six years in the hope of adding 50,000 new customers each year and raising per card spending to NT$5,500 (US$181.78) a month from NT$3,000 at present,” Taishin retail banking executive Oliver Shang (尚瑞強) told reporters.
As credit cards gain importance as a payment tool rather than a borrowing medium, their direct contribution to fee and interest income is falling, Shang said.
However, the cards may allow Taishin Bank to sell wealth management and offer other financial products and services to new customers, indirectly lifting the bank’s overall profitability, he said.
Taishin Bank ties with E.Sun Bank for third place in the local credit-card market after CTBC Bank and Cathay United Bank, Shang said.
However, the number of active credit cards matter more, he said, adding that Taishin Bank is aiming to boost the rate of active cards to 70 percent this year, from 65 percent last year.
RT-Mart has 1 million members across Taiwan and customers may also use credit cards issued by other banks, RT-Mart public relations official Jerry Chang (張富堯) said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS