Chinese banks that have established footholds in Taiwan will be allowed to operate savings and loan services in the local currency only after Taiwanese banks in China are given reciprocal treatment, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) said yesterday.
Speaking at the Legislative Yuan, Chen said it was up to Chinese authorities to decide how soon to allow yuan--denominated savings and loan services at Taiwanese banks, which have been operating branches in China for nearly a year.
The Legislative Yuan has decided against making the first move in this regard, he said.
Under Taiwan’s existing regulations, Chinese banks are required to operate a representative office in Taiwan for at least a year before they can seek approval to upgrade the office into a bank branch, which can then expand into profit-making business.
Two Chinese banks, Bank of China (中國銀行) and the Bank of Communications (交通銀行), obtained FSC permission in September last year to set up representative offices in Taiwan.
However, neither of the banks have applied to the FSC to -upgrade their offices, Chen said in response to a question on the issue by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆).
Five of Taiwan’s leading lenders — Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行) and Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) — opened branches in China late last year after securing approval from the China Banking -Regulatory Commission.
Separately, Cathay Insurance Co’s (國泰產險) Chinese -subsidiary yesterday said it received approval from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to set up a branch in Sichuan Province, according to a stock exchange filing by parent Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控).
The move is the latest step by the Taiwanese insurance company to expand its business into the western part of China after it first entered the China market in September 2008 through the establishment of the Shanghai subsidiary. It later set up branches in Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shangdong and Hebei provinces.
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
‘SACRED MOUNTAIN’: The chipmaker can form joint ventures abroad, except in China, but like other firms, it needs government approval for large investments Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) needs government permission for any overseas joint ventures (JVs), but there are no restrictions on making the most advanced chips overseas other than for China, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. US media have said that TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp, has been in talks for a stake in Intel Corp. Neither company has confirmed the talks, but US President Donald Trump has accused Taiwan of taking away the US’ semiconductor business and said he wants the industry back
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS