State-run Hua Nan Financial Holding Co (華南金控) this year aims to diversify its income sources and boost earnings contributions from non-banking units, chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) said yesterday.
Wu unveiled the goals after the conglomerate reported that net income last year rose 21 percent annually to NT$14.59 billion (US$473 million), thanks to improving corporate banking and financial trading operations.
Last year, bank-focused financial institutions fared better than life insurance-focused peers, which took a hit in the second half from heavy hedging costs amid volatility in the foreign-exchange market.
“It is time for Hua Nan Financial to take action to diversify its sources of income, as it has depended heavily on interest income,” Wu told a media briefing.
Interest income accounted for 53.65 percent of overall profits at main subsidiary Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行), much higher than the sector’s 38.5 percent average, a report by the Legislative Yuan showed.
The bank is to expand its wealth management operations, product lines and sales channels to boost fee and trade incomes, Wu said, adding that exchange-traded funds are popular product options among investment tools.
Employees can seek to enhance cross-selling benefits by taking advantage of branches at home and abroad, he said.
The group would hire more financial professionals to improve personnel quality toward the end of the year, Wu said.
Hua Nan Financial is also seeking to grow multiple profit drivers and raise earnings contributions from securities, insurance and other subsidiaries, Wu said.
The securities arm has expressed its intention to pursue the goal and the insurance division is likely to follow suit soon, he said.
The banking unit generates more than 90 percent of profits at the company.
Hua Nan Financial would deepen financial technology operations, as technology is reshaping the banking industry, Wu said.
The company would closely track big data trends and tap further into mobile payments and other digital banking businesses, he added.
Hua Nan Bank is looking to grow its consumer banking business by 3 percent and mortgage operations by 2 percent from about NT$500 billion at the end of last year, a company official said, adding that wealth management and evolving credits segments are expected to grow by 1 percent.
The lender last month introduced three new credit cards targeting high net worth clients, the official said.
The bank has 1.07 million credit cards in circulation, with the ratio of effective cards standing at 76.5 percent, they said.
Net interest margin held at 1.43 percent last year and might stay flat this year, the official said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last