Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) is targeting profit growth of between 5 and 10 percent for the nation’s financial sector this year, citing the government’s continuous deregulation and stimulus measures.
The nation’s financial sector posted a net profit of NT$502.2 billion (US$15.7 billion) last year, marking the highest level in its history, data collected by the commission showed.
During the period, the banking sector’s return on equity (ROE) — a bank’s net income divided by its average stockholder’s equity — stood at 13 percent last year, while return on assets (ROA) — the percentage of how profitable a bank’s assets are in generating revenue — averaged 0.8 percent, statistics showed.
Photo: CNA
“The government will continue to adopt the financial imports substitution program [to raise the sector’s profitability],” Tseng said at a press conference yesterday.
The commission will further encourage mergers and acquisitions in the financial sector to expand the business scale for a single player to raise competitiveness in the Asian market, Tseng added.
Tseng said he expects the plan to lead to further growth of 5 to 10 percent of the financial sector’s profitability this year, with the aim of helping local banks reach 13 percent ROE and 1 percent ROA, in line with the standards of major global banks.
The development of the financial sector might create more job opportunities for Taiwanese, with the number of employees in the industry expected to increase by more than 41,000 from the 566,856 recorded at the end of last year, Tseng said.
The banking sector might remain one of the major sources of profit for the nation’s financial industry, but Tseng said that the other sectors, such as insurers and brokerage houses, would see their growth momentum rise this year from a year ago.
Data showed that the local banking sector saw NT$332.8 billion in net income last year, accounting for more than half of the financial sector’s profitability, followed by the life insurance sector’s NT$120 billion and brokerage houses’ NT$28.6 billion.
In related news, the commission said it plans to launch a “crowdfunding board” next month at the earliest, in a bid to boost the development of small companies through a crowdfunding platform.
Currently, most crowdfunding platforms in the nation are private and closer to the concept of “donation,” Tseng said, adding that the platform launched by the commission would be different in that investors could earn shares as repayment.
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