Despite its pessimistic view on the consumer spending trend, Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) said yesterday it expected to see a mild recovery in its consumer banking business this year, executives said yesterday.
“Although consumers are cutting back on spending, an increasing number are turning to our monthly installation plan [to pay credit card bills], which contributes to our fee income-based business,” chief investment officer Daniel Wu (吳一揆) told a media briefing yesterday.
An improving credit card environment will allow the company to seek a much more normal risk-based pricing this year by, for example, charging cardholders late-payment fees or annual membership fees, he said.
Weaker growth last year also means the company has a lower base of comparison for its consumer banking business this year, he said.
Chinatrust Financial reported 10 percent year-on-year growth in net profit to NT$14.71 billion (US$420.8 million) last year — the highest among the nation’s 14 financial service providers. That translated into earnings of NT$1.51 per share last year.
Despite its sound earnings last year, the company may not be able to pay out big dividends to shareholders this year after setting aside NT$11.65 billion in earnings as capital reserves, chief financial officer Hsu Miao-chiu (�?R) said.
The company’s net interest income declined 9.1 percent year-on-year to NT$29.8 million last year, accounting for 50 percent of overall income.
Following a series of rate cuts by the central bank from September, Wu said the company’s net interest margin would likely narrow this year from an average of 1.87 percent last quarter.
Revenues from the company’s fee income-based businesses dropped 10 percent to NT$22.5 billion last year, accounting for 38 percent of all income.
Affected by the global financial crisis, the company reported a 35.6 percent year-on-year drop in fee income from wealth management to NT$7.37 billion last year, Wu said, adding that this could further slow down this year.
But the company saw 14.4 percent year-on-year growth in fee income from credit cards to NT$7.9 billion last year — the biggest contributor to its fee income-based businesses.
Its subsidiary, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), reported NT$12.6 billion in net profit last year, accounting for 85 percent of the parent company’s full-year profit.
Chinatrust Bank saw corporate loans rise a significant 10 percent to NT$551 billion last year.
The bank expects to see solid growth this year amid a pickup in demand for funding from China-based businesses, as well as those in the Philippines and Indonesia, the bank said.
Company chairman Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松) also said earlier yesterday that the government should issue another round of consumer vouchers to spur growth in domestic consumption.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
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. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system
Convenience store operator Lawson Inc has registered trademarks in Taiwan, sparking rumors that the Japanese chain is to enter the local market. The company on Aug. 30 filed trademarks for the names Lawson and Lawson Station, according to publicly available information from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office. The product categories on the application include some of Lawson’s top-selling items for use in the convenience store market. The discovery has led to speculation online that the popular Japanese chain is to enter the Taiwanese market. However, some pointed out that it might be a preemptive application to avoid others from co-opting the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to grow its revenue by about 25 percent to a new record high next year, driven by robust demand for advanced technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and crypto mining, International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday. That would see TSMC secure a 67 percent share of the world’s foundry market next year, from 64 percent this year, IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) predicted. In the broader foundry definition, TSMC would see its market share rise to 36 percent next year from 33 percent this year, he said. To address concerns
RSS