Marking its first day of business today, state-run Taiwan Financial Holding Co (
"Taiwan Financial's biggest strength lies in its government-guaranteed runs and its size, which make for a low risk of failure and garners it better credit ratings in the domestic market," said Edward Chow (周行一), dean of National Chengchi University's college of commerce.
But it may have a hard time competing in the international banking sector since it has a less developed network and lacks top-tier financial talents with expertise, Chow said.
Taiwan Financial, with NT$5.12 trillion (US$157 billion) in assets and 323 outlets, ranks as the world's 89th largest bank and the 18th largest in Asia, after the merger of the fully government-owned Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行), Land Bank of Taiwan (士地銀行) and Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China (中國輸出入銀行).
But a total of 323 outlets hardly qualifies as a world player compared to other banks with thousands of outlets in the world, Chow said.
"[Taiwan Financial] has to overcome weakness commonly found in most government-run banks, such as the lack of professionals and upper-level expertise," Chow said.
"Recruitment of international professionals and expansion of global distribution will be the key for Taiwan Financial's future success if it plans to tap into the emerging corporate finance market and compete with other global rivals," he said.
Lin Chu-chia (
"Taiwan Financial's large assets will lead to lower operating risks, which helps attract clients. Also, its diversification of businesses and capital sources creates a lower capital risk," Lin said.
But Lin disapproved of subsidiary Bank of Taiwan's decision to spin off its insurance and securities arms under two to-be-established subsidiaries under the parent company.
The decision showed that the subsidiary Bank of Taiwan lacks expertise in these two financial segments, he said.
Local rating agencies, however, gave a thumbs-up to Taiwan Financial's establishment.
Taiwan Ratings Corporation (中華信評) has revised its outlook for subsidiary Land Bank from "stable" to "positive," reflecting "the bank's established franchise, good financial flexibility and government support due to its importance to the nation's financial system," the rating agency's press statement said earlier.
Taiwan Financial is expected to command 19 percent of the nation's deposits based on three subsidiary banks' financial measures as of September last year, the statement said.
Taiwan Rating expressed concern over the Land Bank's mediocre profitability and concentrated business profile, which is sensitive to the domestic real estate market environment. However, this would not immediately have any negative impact on its rating, Taiwan Ratings said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS