Citi Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) was last month named this year’s Best International Bank and the Best International Investment Bank in Taiwan by the FinanceAsia magazine.
This is the 25th consecutive year that Citi Taiwan has won the Best International Bank award and the fourth time that it has won the Best International Investment Bank recognition.
After the international finance magazine announced the awards, Citi Taiwan chairman Paulus Mok (莫兆鴻) expressed his appreciation for the recognition.
Photo courtesy of Citi Taiwan Ltd
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the global economy has been severely impacted, and the overall business environment is facing severe challenges. It is not easy for Citi to continue winning awards from an independent institution for a quarter of a century. The awards belong to all Citi Taiwan staff,” Mok said.
Despite a decline in interest rates for US dollar deposits and the effects of the pandemic last year, Citi Taiwan still showed outstanding business performance in its institutional clients group and global consumer banking division.
In addition, its corporate and investment banking arm participated in and completed several major mergers and acquisitions, as well as transactions in capital markets last year.
With the increase in the momentum of Taiwan’s capital markets and transaction volume last year, which attracted considerable foreign investment, Citi Taiwan has come to dominate the custody services market and become the largest custodian bank in Taiwan.
In terms of global consumer banking, Citi Taiwan also introduced digital innovation plans and services to enhance its digital competitiveness, while its wealth management business demonstrated growth momentum.
Citi continues to promote the concept of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) in Taiwan, and supports the government’s “five plus two” innovative industries plan to direct funds into green energy technology, the circular economy and other industries.
According to information from the Financial Supervisory Commission, Citi Taiwan’s loan amount reached about NT$58.8 billion (US$2.13 billion) at the end of last year, ranking first among foreign banks.
In addition, Citi has been paying attention to climate change and held a series of “Citi Empowers Taiwan Youth to Tackle Climate Change” activities with nonprofit organizations from the end of last year to early this year. It invited Citigroup Inc chief sustainability officer Val Smith, and other distinguished speakers in Taiwan and from abroad to share ESG and climate trends, and encourage young people to explore climate change issues in depth.
In the face of the pandemic, to provide employees with a safe and healthy working environment, Citi Taiwan has since last year been implementing remote office and home office programs.
This year, the bank has offered paid leave for employees who get vaccinated — two days per dose — and free consultation for employees. It has also helped employees upgrade their Internet connection at home or subsidized their taxi fares to help them feel at ease while fighting the pandemic together.
On this year’s Citi Global Community Day, Citi called on its employees to support charity meals, and help disabled or disadvantaged people weather these difficult times, demonstrating corporate social responsibility.
With a solid operating performance and active participation in corporate social responsibility (CSR), Citi Taiwan has been recognized by various awards at home and abroad.
Aside from FinanceAsia’s awards, Citi Taiwan has won the Best Bank award from The Asset Triple A for 18 consecutive years. From Reader’s Digest, the bank has won the Gold Award in the Trusted Brand: Credit Card Issuing Bank category for 14 years in a row, and the Gold Award in the Trusted Brand: Finance Managing Bank category for the sixth straight year.
In the CSR field, Citi Taiwan was presented with the Best ESG Award from the Taiwan Banking and Finance Best Practice Awards and won the Best CSR Award from Excellence Magazine last year.
Responding to Citigroup’s refresh strategy, Citi Taiwan chairman Paulus Mok said, “Citi has delivered remarkable and successful performances in Taiwan for nearly six decades. We will remain strongly committed to the Taiwan market and strive to be the best banking partner for our local and multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector entities. As we transition our franchise towards future growth opportunities, we will continue to leverage Citi’s unique global network and innovation capability to offer a broad spectrum of wholesale banking products and services to help our clients achieve sustainable growth and progress.”
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
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
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS