State-run Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) yesterday established a private banking unit aimed at high-net-worth clients, an arena that has gained importance, as lenders compete to grow their market share.
Lei Chung-dar (雷仲達), chairman of Mega International and its parent group Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), said he is serious about the private banking unit, which was created to meet the standards of foreign banking groups, especially peers in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Many first-generation business owners in Taiwan have accumulated sizable wealth after decades of hard work and have asset allocation, retirement planning and business succession needs, among other things, Lei said.
Photo courtesy of Mega International Commercial Bank
To meet the requirements of high-end clientele, the private banking sector has become a battleground for financial players, and Mega International would not be sitting out, he said.
The lender would seek to gain a better understanding of this group of people, and come up with solutions and services by learning from banks in Singapore and Hong Kong, as they tapped into this market a long time ago, Lei said.
The lender’s private banking division is a positive response to the Financial Supervisory Commission urging domestic banks to not stay on the sidelines, he said.
While high-net-worth individuals make up only 5 percent of the lender’s clients, their assets account for 20 percent of its assets, Mega International head of private banking Chen Chou-rong (陳昭蓉) said.
The private banking unit would also provide inheritance planning and wealth management services, she added.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
RSS