Standard Chartered PLC and Prudential PLC announced yesterday that they have struck a 15-year agreement to expand the term and geographic scope of their bancassurance partnership in Asian markets, which includes Taiwan.
The new agreement, which increases coverage from nine markets to 11, will take effect on July 1 to deepen a partnership that formed in 1998, Standard Chartered said in a statement.
Under the new agreement, Standard Chartered will exclusively sell Prudential’s life insurance products through its banking branches in nine markets: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and India, the statement said.
In China and South Korea, the British banking group will distribute Prudential’s life insurance products on a preferred basis, the statement said.
The agreement falls in line with “our aspiration to be a leader in growing and protecting the wealth of our clients, with a specific aim to double our assets under management to US$300 billion by 2020,” Standard Chartered chief executive officer Peter Sands said in the statement.
The UK-based bank posted US$6.96 billion in pre-tax profit last year, down 7 percent from US$7.52 billion in 2012, due to market volatility and pressured interest and profit margin, the group said last week. Its subsidiary in Taiwan recorded NT$2.78 billion in pre-tax income last year, falling 22 percent from NT$3.56 billion in 2012, according to Financial Supervisory Commission’s Web site.
Hong Kong, the group’s largest market, increased income by 11 percent and operating profit by 16 percent last year, Standard Chartered said.
Standard Chartered and Prudential have also agreed to explore further opportunities elsewhere in Asia and in Africa, as Prudential aims to expand its presence in emerging markets.
“The business ... with Standard Chartered has achieved significant growth, delivering compound annual sales growth of 19 percent over the last decade,” Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam said in the statement.
Although headquartered in London, Standard Chartered strives in Asia, Africa and the Middle East where the group earns about 90 percent of its income and profits.
soft landing: The US’ rate-setting FOMC finds itself in a difficult situation as it seeks to address inflation through interest rate hikes while avoiding a recession The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday after a summer of mixed economic data, while leaving the door open to another hike if needed. The Fed has raised interest rates 11 times over the past 18 months, lifting its key lending rate to a level not seen for 22 years as it tackles inflation still stubbornly above its long-term target of 2 percent. Analysts and traders broadly expect the US central bank to hold rates steady on Wednesday in order to give policymakers more time to assess the health of the world’s largest economy. “We think
AI TREND: TSMC has been rapidly expanding capacity to meet a spike in demand for advanced packaging services, but still expects supplies to be tight for 18 months Arizona is in talks with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) about advanced chip packaging, state Governor Katie Hobbs said yesterday, which is crucial for the manufacturing of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. TSMC, which is building a US$40 billion chip factory in the US state, has not announced plans to build facilities for advanced chip packaging in the US. Advanced packaging processes stitch multiple chips together into a single device, lowering the added cost of more powerful computing. “Part of our efforts at building the semiconductor ecosystem is focusing on advanced packaging, so we have several things in the works around that
At a sprawling South Korean arms factory on Friday, a high-tech production line of robots and super-skilled workers were rapidly churning out weapons that could, eventually, play a role in Ukraine. Since the Russian invasion last year, the Hanwha Aerospace factory in the southern city of Changwon has expanded production capacity three times, workers told reporters, as South Korea ramps up arms exports while traditional behemoths like the US struggle with production shortages. Longstanding domestic policy bars Seoul from selling weapons into active conflicts, but even so it signed deals worth US$17.3 billion last year, including a US$12.7 billion agreement with NATO
Tailwinds: Blockbuster earnings at Nvidia Corp have sparked hopes of a tech sector boom; Taiwanese chipmakers are hopeful benefits will come to them too The worst could be over for the New Taiwan dollar as China’s economic recovery and a rebound in the chip industry will support the beleaguered currency, analysts said. The NT dollar is on course to weaken for a sixth month, the longest stretch since 2006, after foreign funds turned sour on its technology sector and risk sentiment deteriorated on slower growth in China. The tide seems to be turning now on nascent signs of stabilization in China’s economy — its biggest trading partner — following policy boosts. The yuan emerged as the best-performing Asian currency last week, followed by the Japanese yen
RSS