CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) chairman Morris Li (利明献) on Thursday last week was named The Asian Banker’s Best CEO in Taiwan for leading innovation by utilizing digital technology amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
CTBC was also named Best Managed Bank in Taiwan for cooperating with the government to provide worker bailout funds, effectively addressing public need through capital management.
It was the only financial institution in Taiwan to receive that award.
Photo courtesy of CTBC Bank
Speaking at an online awards ceremony, Li thanked the financial information company for the substantial encouragement it had given the CTBC team in such difficult times.
During the pandemic, CTBC handled in six weeks cases that would normally require two years to process, including more than 280,000 labor bailout applications, with about 230,000 of them approved, Li said.
The efficiency of the loan service is high, because the bank has an all-digital platform for applications, a smart review system and automated processing — three “digital strengths” of the bank, he said.
The agility of its customer-centered staff is another reason for CTBC’s success, Li said, adding that more than 2,600 employees contributed to the bank’s bailout services.
While the pandemic affected revenue in many industries, CTBC introduced preferential mortgage, personal loan, credit card interest rate and corporate revolving loan packages to relieve the burden on people, and small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.
Discounts were introduced in April for businesses at the CTBC Financial Park (中國信託金融園區) in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港), with the highest rent decrease being 86 percent, he said.
Li extended appreciation to all CTBC employees in Taiwan and abroad for fulfilling the corporate spirit of “We are family” by swiftly addressing customers’ needs at all times.
The Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Awards Program is held every three years.
It is widely acknowledged in the financial services industry as the highest accolade for professionals in the industry in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.
The Best Managed Bank in Taiwan award is decided based on the opinions of experts and the results of online questionnaires sent via BankQuality.com, with the three biggest performance factors being digitalization, credit and liquidity risk management capabilities, and social contribution.
There were 11 best CEOs and 11 best-managed bank awards named in the Asia-Pacific region this year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained