The Cathay United Bank (
The Cathay United-Pacific Sogo card can be used as a MasterCard credit card and it also comes with a range of Lin Yuan Group benefits, said Roger Lee (
In addition, the cardholders can accumulate loyalty program points and participate in Sogo member-only packages, including discounts on purchases at Sogo stores, Lee added.
Such partnerships are good for both Cathay United and Pacific Sogo. The bank is expected to expand its credit card customer base from the current 800,000 to an estimated of 1.5 million by the end of the year, making it one of the biggest three credit card issuers on the island, Lee said.
The deal will also help transfer Sogo's 1.4 million in-house debit cardholders into MasterCard credit cardholders, offering customers more advanced financial services, said Darren Chang (章啟正), executive director of Pacific Sogo.
Chang said he expects to see above 700,000 Sogo in-house debit cards be transferred into affinity credit cards this year.
The Chinese language media reported that Cathay United -- who beat out competitors Chinatrust Commercial Bank (
Chang declined to comment on that figure, but he did say the Linyuan Group has strong financial resources to support the promotion of the new cards, including the 5 million customers of its affiliate Cathay Life Insurance Co (
Pacific Sogo is a unit of Pacific Construction Co (太平洋建設), which manages 15 department stores in both Taiwan and China.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
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