The German industrial group Siemens has applied for a banking license, it said yesterday, to ensure it has a safe place to park its pile of cash.
The sprawling conglomerate “aims to expand the product portfolio of its financial services unit, particularly in the sales finance area,” it said in a statement.
APPLICATION
The group has therefore applied for a banking license with Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, which is currently reviewing the application.
Finance director Joe Kaeser told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily that Siemens had learned lessons from the past in making its decision.
“In the current situation, we can be affected if banks have problems, with a legislative environment that is not totally transparent,” Kaeser said.
“Our liquidity now amounts to around nine billion euros [US$11 billion], which means we really need to be able to make safe investments” that Siemens “could do by itself” via its own bank, he said.
Siemens could thus place deposits directly with the German central bank, for example, he said.
APPROVAL EXPECTED
Kaeser expected German authorities to give their approval shortly.
However, in contrast to other German groups such as automakers BMW and Volkswagen, which offer banking services like savings accounts and customer credits, Siemens “does not want to do retail banking,” the finance director said.
However, it did want to offer services to large industrial clients, he added.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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