HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) said it has accepted green deposits totaling NT$30 million (US$1.06 million) from Chang Chun Group (長春集團), TSRC Corp (台橡) and Powertech Technology Inc (PTI, 力成科技), which it would use to finance environmentally friendly projects.
The bank accepted its first green deposits from a corporate clients in January, but it did not reveal the client nor the amount of the deposit, only saying that the depositor is a listed major local business.
Unlike regular deposits, whose funds could be used by banks to create any type of loan, green deposits have strict limits regarding the use of the funds, including that they can only be used for green projects such as renewable energy projects, energy efficiency upgrades and improvements to sustainable waste management, HSBS Bank Taiwan said.
It would routinely report how it deploys the green deposits and its activity is supervised by PricewaterhouseCoopers Taiwan (資誠聯合會計師事務所), a third-party institution, the bank said.
“Green deposits are products that are fit for the companies which prefer to invest capital in environmental projects instead of in the stock market,” HSBC Bank Taiwan said.
The three firms to make the deposits said in a statement on Tuesday that they are glad that they could finance green projects.
The deposits signal their determination to protect the environment, the statement said.
Chang Chun Group, a petrochemical conglomerate, and TSRC, a manufacturer of synthetic rubber, said that they are working to develop more efficient production methods, while PTI, a memorychip packaging and testing service provider, said it has short-term and long-term sustainable development plans.
DBS Bank Taiwan (星展台灣), the local unit of Singapore-based DBS Group Holdings Ltd, in January also launched a green deposit program, with a minimum deposit of NT$15 million.
Neither bank has said whether it offers higher interest rates for green depositors.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
FORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES: New technology always comes with new innovations by the iniquitous in exploiting users for financial gain or more nefarious ends Artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” say they can save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems such as OpenClaw is putting cybersecurity experts on edge. Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today says it has more than three million users worldwide. The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC’s Claude, that can carry out online tasks. “We’ve moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action... the threat and the risks are
RSS