Taipei Fubon Bank Co (台北富邦銀行) has secured approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to open a branch in Mumbai, India.
The FSC said in a statement yesterday that Taipei Fubon Bank — a subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) — had taken into account the Indian market’s current and long-term growth prospects before deciding to set up a branch in Mumbai.
The planned branch is expected to help Taiwanese investors in India and local Indian enterprises access financing opportunities, including international syndicated loans, it said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
The commission therefore issued the green light to Taipei Fubon Bank to seek approval from financial authorities in India to open a branch in the Indian financial hub.
If successful, it would be the fourth Taiwanese bank to set up shop in India, it added.
So far, CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) has two branches in India, one in New Delhi and the other in Sriperumbudur, while Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), the largest Taiwanese lender, and Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行) each have a representative office in Mumbai.
India is one of the 18 countries targeted by the government’s New Southbound Policy, which aims to enhance trade and exchanges between Taiwan and the 18 countries in Southeast and South Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand, to reduce Taiwan’s dependence on China. It was introduced after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016.
As of the end of last month, Taipei Fubon Bank had overseas branches in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Binh Duong, as well as in Hong Kong and Singapore, the FSC said, adding that the bank owns a subsidiary — Fubon Bank — in China.
In addition, it has representative offices in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Sydney, Australia.
Fubon Financial last month retained the title of most profitable financial institution in Taiwan after it posted a net profit of NT$14.07 billion (US$446.3 million), up 131 percent from a year earlier, with earnings per share of NT $10.8.
Taipei Fubon Bank also posted a new monthly high of almost NT$3.5 billion in net profit that month.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer