An unflagging focus on stability, sometimes at the expense of reform, defined Perng Fai-nan’s two decades as head of Taiwan’s Central Bank. In Perng Fai-nan’s two decades of service as Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) before his retirement in February, the New Taiwan dollar’s value held steady, rarely deviating…
Four countries edged past Taiwan in the 2018 Doing Business survey. In the 15th edition of the World Bank’s annual Doing Business report, released on October 31, Taiwan (or “Taiwan, China” in the World Bank’s nomenclature) slipped four notches from 11th place last year to 15th among the 190 economies surveyed. The four countries moving…
When is a foreign bank not a foreign bank? Answer: When it establishes a domestic subsidiary. Between 2007 and 2013, five leading international banks – Standard Chartered, Citi, HSBC, DBS, and ANZ – received approval from the financial authorities to expand their presence in Taiwan’s retail banking market by taking over the operations of local…
Exposure declines in China, though it remains an important market for serving Taiwanese SMEs. Taiwan has long suffered from a saturated domestic banking market, prompting its banks to foray abroad for new business opportunities. Under the administration of former President Ma Ying-jeou, banks took advantage of the cross-Strait detente to open numerous branches in China….
Taiwan’s ambitious plans to develop offshore wind power spur a need for project financing. International banks have held a rather limited market share in Taiwan, but one area in which they have a potential competitive edge by virtue of their technical expertise in the financing of major projects. In recent years, such projects have…
As paradigms in the banking industry shift rapidly, the future of banking hedges on innovation, specialization, and mastery of the digital business landscape. In the past year, volatility in global and regional markets—from the plunge in oil prices to post-Brexit uncertainties—has made Taiwan’s banking industry keen to bring stability and growth to the financial liberalization…
An examination of the incident shows things that Taiwan did well, plus areas in need of improvement. On July 9 and 10 last summer, the ATM network of the First Commercial Bank in Taiwan was hit by a well-coordinated hack that took control of the system, forcing selected ATM machines to spew cash out to…
The ascendant Southeast Asian region of 600 million offers Taiwanese banks better prospects than mercurial China The Taiwanese banking sector booked a net loss in 2015 for the first time in nine years as a feeble domestic economy and China’s slowing growth battered balance sheets. Earnings fell 0.2% year-on-year to NT$319.6 billion (US$9.75 billion),…
Once saddled with a huge volume of non-performing loans, the farming credit system has strengthened under the supervision of a state-backed agricultural bank. Taiwan’s agricultural finance system has evolved considerably since the early 2000s when it was burdened with a large volume of non-performing loans (NPLs). The dire state of Taiwan’s rural finances at that…
In January, outgoing Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) chairman William Ming-chung Tseng (now a member of the Legislative Yuan) highlighted the slow pace of consolidation in the banking sector as a major regret of his FSC tenure. When he was appointed head of the FSC in 2014, Tseng called for consolidation in a bid to streamline…
