PAPER
Chair forged seals: TPPC
Taiwan Pulp and Paper Corp (TPPC, 台灣紙業) chairman Chien Hung-wen (簡鴻文) has been accused of forging company seals, according to TPPC’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday. The filing said Chien submitted an application to the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Commerce to replace original company seals with new ones, believed to be fake. TPPC said it is seeking an administrative remedy for the accusation to ensure shareholders’ interests. Chien denied the allegation, saying that he had to file an application for new company seals as TPPC officials refused to provide him with original ones. He said the process of seal changes was completely legal.
CREDIT
Fraud reports hit new high
Credit card fraud reported in Taiwan hit a record-high last year, according to statistics released by the National Credit Card Center yesterday. Last year, credit card fraud totaled NT$1.3 billion (US$42.24 million) in Taiwan, more than triple the NT$328 million recorded in 2013, the center said. Eighty-nine percent of that — NT$1.16 billion — involved online transactions, a sharp increase from NT$268 million in 2013, the center said. The center also discovered that 95 percent of the fraudulent online transactions occurred overseas, which it attributed to the popularity of shopping on overseas Web sites.
ITALY
Chinese bank to pay fine
Italian media outlets reported that the Bank of China (中國銀行) has agreed to pay a fine of 600,000 euros (US$636,870), as part of a plea deal in a 4.5 billion euro money laundering probe. ANSA reported that at a preliminary hearing on Friday four bank officials were convicted of money laundering, while a charge of employing Mafia methods was dropped. The judge sentenced the bank officials to a two-year suspended sentence and ordered the seizure of 980,000 euros, equal to what prosecutors said were the bank’s profits in the scheme.
BANKING
Citigroup cuts CEO’s pay
Citigroup Inc’s board of directors is paying chief executive officer Michael Corbat US$15.5 million for last year, down from the US$16.5 million pay packet he received in 2015. The board on Friday said that in addition to his US$1.5 million base salary, Corbat is to receive US$4.2 million in cash and US$9.8 million in stock awards. The board said the package reflects Corbat’s work to shrink and restructure Citi following the financial crisis. Citigroup almost entirely wound down Citi Holdings last year, which is the “bad bank” part of Citigroup where the company housed all of the toxic assets.
FINANCE
Fannie Mae profits double
Fannie Mae on Friday said that it would pay the US Department of the Treasury a US$5.5 billion dividend next month after its profit doubled in its latest quarter. The government-controlled mortgage company has already paid the treasury US$154.4 billion in dividends since receiving US$116.1 billion in government bailouts between 2008 and 2011. Fannie Mae’s sibling Freddie Mac, which was also rescued by the government during the recession, on Thursday said that it would pay the treasury a US$4.5 billion dividend next month after its profits soared.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
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