E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) was the biggest issuer of new credit cards among local banks in September, for a third consecutive month, thanks to new programs featuring mobile payment and big rewards for online shopping.
The banking unit of E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) issued 181,405 new cards in September, or 25 percent of all 723,056 cards issued, compared with the 127,293 and 155,055 cards it issued in July and August respectively, Financial Supervisory Commission data showed.
The bank’s U Bear card, launched in July and targeting younger consumers, was the first card to focus on rewards for online shopping.
Cardholders earn NT$5 (US$0.16) for every NT$100 spent on online and can earn 8 percent on purchases made at the nation’s four convenience store chains, E.Sun said yesterday.
The bank in August introduced a co-branded card with Kaohsiung Hanshin Arena Store (漢神巨蛋購物廣場), plus another card focused on travel miles benefits.
All the new cards can be integrated into a mobile wallet app that allows cardholders to pay with their mobile devices, helping reducing concern about losing the physical cards, the bank said.
Its co-branded card with Pi Mobile Technology Inc (拍付國際), which was launched in August last year and provides cardholders up to 4.5 credit points for every NT$100 spent, remains popular, the bank said.
The robust growth in its new credit card business boosted its net fee income from credit card sector to NT$4.87 billion for the first nine months of the year, up 30.3 percent year-on-year, E.Sun said.
Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行) came in second in new card issuance in September, with 109,367 cards, followed by Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) with 82,642, commission data showed.
E.Sun Bank outperformed rivals with its new card programs between July and September, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, state-run Taiwan Business Bank (台企銀) is leading its peers in canceling cards that have not been used in more than a year, with 112,327 cards canceled so far, Huang said.
Overall, CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行), the banking arm of CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控), remained first in terms of the number of cards in circulation at the end of September, with 6.75 million cards, followed by Cathay United Bank with 6.66 million and E.Sun Bank with 5.53 million, data showed.
Credit card spending totaled NT$253 billion in September for a cumulative total of NT$2.39 trillion for the first nine months of the year, setting both monthly and cumulative records, Huang said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS