State-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) said it is looking to benefit from interest rate hikes in Taiwan and abroad, even though corporate and retail clients have turned conservative about financing.
The bank-focused conglomerate shared its business outlook with an online investors’ conference earlier this week.
The company has raised its loan growth target for small and medium-sized enterprises from between 6 to 7 percent to 7 to 8 percent, and that for overseas lending from 10 to 11 percent to 12 to 13 percent, it said.
The wealth management business could post 8 to 9 percent growth, helping fee income gain at the same pace, First Financial spokeswoman Anne Lee (李淑玲) said.
Interest rate hikes in March of 0.25 percentage points in Taiwan and the US are expected to boost interest income by NT$2.2 billion (US$74.9 million), with further momentum anticipated in the second half of the year.
The US Federal Reserve has made clear that it would raise interest rates by 0.5 percentage points this month and next month, Lee said.
The local central bank could follow suit, although at a milder pace, to flight inflation, slow capital flight and stabilize the local currency, she said.
Lending operations have slowed as corporate and retail customers have shown hesitancy about increasing their financial leverage, she added.
The cautious sentiment is expected to dissipate after interest rate hikes bring down inflation and provide consumers with enough confidence to resume spending, Lee said.
Interest rate hikes are also favorable for selling fixed-income investment tools and the group would highlight such wealth management products to clients, she said.
By contrast, mortgage operations could increase by a middle-single-digit percentage due to selective credit controls, Lee said.
The housing market would consolidate eventually, but with a slim chance of price corrections given that developers are factoring in soaring costs of building materials along with a labor shortage, she said.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
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Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
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