Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), Taiwan’s largest financial firm by assets, is hiring more staff in Singapore to follow shifting regional money flows as its clients expand their presence in Southeast Asia.
The group’s Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) is ramping up headcount in the city-state to about 200 by next year, from 100 two years ago, said Winfield Wong (黃偉坤), chief executive officer of the bank’s Singapore unit.
Recent additions include relationship managers for corporate clients that are expanding in the region, as well as private bankers, he said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The growth plan underscores how Singapore and its neighbors are benefiting as US-China tensions prompt companies to diversify investments and manufacturing throughout Southeast Asia.
“There’s huge outbound investment flows as a result of supply-chain diversification,” Wong said in an interview.
Taiwan’s Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and NXP Semiconductors NV are teaming up to build a US$7.8 billion semiconductor fab in Singapore, the companies announced early this month.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major supplier to Apple Inc, is among firms adding plants in Vietnam.
This year, the Taiwanese bank is looking to add more staff in information technology, risk, transaction management and capital solutions, Wong said.
Cathay United Bank operates in nine Southeast Asian markets. The lender’s private-bank assets under management in Singapore doubled to several hundred million dollars since the business started there in 2020, Wong said.
The minimum threshold for an account is about US$2 million.
Wong is among the recent hires. The Singaporean joined Cathay in February last year, after more than 12 years at HSBC Holdings PLC, where he rotated around Hong Kong, Vietnam and the city-state. He has also worked at Citigroup Inc and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd.
China was once the top destination for Taiwanese investors and accounted for 84 percent of Taiwan’s foreign direct investment at its peak in 2010. That dropped last year to 11 percent, and lagged behind a group including India, Australia and Southeast Asia for the second year in a row.
The Taiwanese banking sector’s total exposure to China has contracted for 12 consecutive quarters and reached its lowest level in the first three months this year, data from the Financial Supervisory Commission showed.
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