Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan’s largest financial firm by assets, is hiring more staff in Singapore to follow shifting regional money flows as its clients expand their presence in Southeast Asia.
The group’s Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) is ramping up headcount in the city-state to about 200 by next year, from 100 two years ago, said Winfield Wong (黃偉坤), chief executive officer of the bank’s Singapore unit.
Recent additions include relationship managers for corporate clients that are expanding in the region, as well as private bankers, he said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The growth plan underscores how Singapore and its neighbors are benefiting as US-China tensions prompt companies to diversify investments and manufacturing throughout Southeast Asia.
“There’s huge outbound investment flows as a result of supply-chain diversification,” Wong said in an interview.
Taiwan’s Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and NXP Semiconductors NV are teaming up to build a US$7.8 billion semiconductor fab in Singapore, the companies announced early this month.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major supplier to Apple Inc, is among firms adding plants in Vietnam.
This year, the Taiwanese bank is looking to add more staff in information technology, risk, transaction management and capital solutions, Wong said.
Cathay United Bank operates in nine Southeast Asian markets. The lender’s private-bank assets under management in Singapore doubled to several hundred million dollars since the business started there in 2020, Wong said.
The minimum threshold for an account is about US$2 million.
Wong is among the recent hires. The Singaporean joined Cathay in February last year, after more than 12 years at HSBC Holdings PLC, where he rotated around Hong Kong, Vietnam and the city-state. He has also worked at Citigroup Inc and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd.
China was once the top destination for Taiwanese investors and accounted for 84 percent of Taiwan’s foreign direct investment at its peak in 2010. That dropped last year to 11 percent, and lagged behind a group including India, Australia and Southeast Asia for the second year in a row.
The Taiwanese banking sector’s total exposure to China has contracted for 12 consecutive quarters and reached its lowest level in the first three months this year, data from the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
RSS