CTBC Bank Co Ltd (中國信託銀行) yesterday announced a credit-card partnership with the operators of T.S. Dream Mall (南紡夢時代購物中心), which is set to open soon in Greater Tainan.
The cobranded card is to be the fifth such card issued by CTBC Bank in cooperation with a local department store or shopping mall after Taipei 101 Mall, Hanshin Department Store (漢神百貨) in Greater Kaohsiung, Park Lane by CMP (勤美天地) in Greater Taichung and the MetroWalk Shopping Center (大江國際購物中心) in Taoyuan County.
“CTBC Bank’s strategy is to issue cobranded credit cards with department store operators that have a focus in certain areas of Taiwan, which may help expand our customer base and coverage,” bank president James Chen (陳佳文) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
The lender hopes to issue 150,000 credit cards with T.S. Dream Mall in the first year and boost that number to 300,000 by the end of 2016 in a bid to help increase the bank’s transaction fee income, Chen said.
T.S. Dream Mall, which is operated by T.S. Retail and Distribution Co (南紡流通事業), is to launch trial operations next month ahead of its formal opening in February next year.
CTBC Bank is looking to increase its credit card coverage in Greater Tainan, bank officials said.
Department store co-branded cards account for between 12 and 14 percent of the bank’s consumer business, they said.
The Taipei-based bank is in discussions with other department store operators in New Taipei City, as well as Hsinchu, Yilan and Pingtung counties, they said.
CTBC Bank stepped up its search for cobranding partners this year after losing Costco Taiwan to Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), which is courting the wholesale club’s 900,000 local customers through an exclusive cooperation.
The number of cards issued is not as important as the amount of transaction fee income generated, Chen said, adding that CTBC has a 15 percent market share in the sector.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
RSS