In response to the National Development Council’s (NDC) plan to make Taiwan a bilingual nation, CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) has been developing bilingual financial services, with Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) on Friday last week saying that he was impressed by the bank’s efforts to develop a friendly bilingual environment and the delicacy of its bilingual services.
Huang said he hoped that every branch would offer foreign language services by 2030, as he visited CTBC Bank’s Shifu branch in Taipei — the bank’s first branch to offer bilingual services.
Joining Huang were NDC Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫), FSC Deputy Chairman Jean Chiu (邱淑貞), Banking Bureau Director-General Sherri Chuang (莊琇媛), Banking Bureau Chief Secretary Phil Tong (童政彰) and Department of International Affairs Director-General Joe Lai (賴銘賢).
Photo courtesy of CTBC Bank
The FSC and NDC officials were received by CTBC Bank chairman Morris Li (利明献), vice chairman Austin Chan (詹庭禎), president James Chen (陳佳文), retail banking chief executive officer Albert Lee (李玉秋) and retail banking executive vice president Amy Yang (楊淑惠).
Li said that the bank is committed to providing bilingual services across all channels, from physical outlets to digital platforms.
By the end of this year, each of the bank’s branches is expected to be equipped with bilingual number-calling machines and paper forms, Li said.
The bank would also focus on enhancing staffs’ foreign-language skills, and aims to provide staff with Southeast Asian language courses in addition to English and Japanese, he said.
The bank would offer group study, online learning and one-to-one training courses to staff, and include language score requirements for specific jobs, he added.
CTBC’s Shifu branch displays Chinese and English on its foreign exchange rate/interest rate bulletin boards and number-calling machines, and has both languages on its paper forms for transactions.
Nearly 60 percent of the branch’s counter staff can provide financial services in English, the bank said.
The bank plans to use the experience of the front desk staffs’ interactions with foreign customers to create a daily training program for CTBC’s 152 branches in Taiwan, it said.
CTBC’s Internet banking and mobile banking services also provide friendly English-language interfaces, including money transfer, currency exchange and asset inquiry functions. Foreign customers log into the bank’s mobile banking more than 12,000 times per month, with an average of nine logins per person per month, CTBC data showed.
The bank has more than 6,300 automatic teller machines nationwide that provide services in Chinese and English.
For customers with foreign credit or debit cards, there are 12 languages for them to choose from, it said.
The bank has currency exchange machines at the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung, which can exchange New Taiwan dollars, US dollars, yen and yuan, it added.
CTBC said that it provides subsidies, cash rewards and game-based learning channels to help staff improve their foreign-language abilities.
It also offers language training courses for expatriate supervisors, has set up a language learning space at its head office and launched English consulting services by on-site foreign teachers, with the aim of providing staff with a variety of language learning options.
CTBC has set up the Shifu branch, and its Shizheng branch in Taichung and Boai branch in Kaohsiung, to be used as bilingual demonstration branches since July 1 to comply with the FSC’s efforts to build a friendly bilingual financial environment, it said.
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