Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday.
Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems.
“The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said.
Photo: Chen Mei-ying, Taipei Times
Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October.
The existing system — the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) — is a cooperative established in 1973 in Belgium and owned by the banks and other member firms that use its service.
SWIFT’s coverage has grown increasingly more extensive and gained a competitive edge, helped by the Internet, Yang said.
Today, about 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries are part of the SWIFT network, making it the backbone of international financial information transmission.
The SWIFT network neither transfers funds, nor is it a banking system. Rather, it sends payment orders between banks using SWIFT codes, he said.
Global transactions amounted to US$271.37 trillion in the first three quarters of this year, with the US dollar being the primary clearing currency, accounting for 47.5 percent, Yang said, citing SWIFT data.
Any uses in contravention of EU or Belgian regulations would be sanctioned after being reported to the SWIFT board. Serious contraveners might be cut off from the system, Yang said.
SWIFT became a means of financial sanctions by Western countries against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Yang said. Russia was first sanctioned in 2014 after it illegally annexed Crimea and it has since then embarked on a “de-dollarization” campaign against Western countries, the governor said.
The BRICS countries are discussing the creation of a new financial payment platform called the “BRICS Bridge” in a bid to compete with and replace SWIFT, Yang said.
Taiwan’s payment system infrastructure is sound and all banks participate in the SWIFT network, the governor said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS