SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is reviewing its lending operations to improve internal oversight after a spate of questionable loans led to heavy fines and a management reshuffle, senior executives said yesterday.
“We are re-examining credit applications to make sure they all meet regulatory requirements... The probe by the Financial Supervisory Commission will show if the company is guilty of compliance failure,” SinoPac Financial chief investment officer Eric Chuang (莊銘福) said on the sidelines of the inauguration of a new Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) branch in Hualien.
The probe came after a tip-off from the group’s employees that affiliated SinoPac Leasing Corp (永豐金租賃) granted a US$1.35 million (NT$4.22 billion) loan to J&R Trading Co, a foreign shell company owned by Sun Power Development and Construction Co (三寶建設) and with investment from papermaking conglomerate YFY Inc (永豐餘控股) and E Ink Holdings Co (元太科技).
Both YFY and E Ink are affiliates of SinoPac Financial, raising ethical and legal concerns over the loan, especially in the absence of sufficient collateral, local media cited the employee as saying.
SinoPac Financial denied the accusation, saying the leasing unit secured equities and subordinate claims on real estate as collateral that are estimated to be worth 85 percent of the loan.
The borrower carried out the financing through a foreign company as is standard practice for Taiwanese firms based in China, SinoPac Financial said.
Unlike banks, leasing firms cannot demand the use of land as collateral in China and the group decided to classify the loan as “unsecured” to meet tighter standards, SinoPac Financial said.
“The company should emerge from the probe unscathed,” Chuang said.
Last month, Bank SinoPac, the main subsidiary of SinoPac Financial, incurred a fine of NT$10 million for loans paid to Taipei-based dentistry supplier Tingsing Trading Co (鼎興貿易).
The dentistry supplier allegedly bilked NT$3.78 billion from 13 lenders, including Bank SinoPac, because it is owned by an in-law of a former Bank SinoPac director, prosecutors said.
SinoPac Financial reshuffled its top management positions after the fine.
Acting Bank SinoPac president Philip Wei (魏哲弘), whose appointment is awaiting regulatory approval, said he and his colleagues are sorting out their connections because many people do not know their distant relatives, whose conduct could have legal implications in their profession.
Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川), the patriarch at SinoPac Financial, YFY, E Ink and other businesses, has adopted a strict approach to deal with family and friends, Wei said.
A review of all loans in excess of NT$100 million is being undertaken, officials said.
The Hualien branch is intended to deepen the lender’s presence in the east of the nation, where customers prefer traditional human contact to online transactions, Bank SinoPac said.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
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 is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
RSS