Taiwan’s banks to receive huge boost from cross-strait pact

Guess what the 4 main advantages are?

The Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement signed recently has four main advantages that will greatly boost Taiwan’s financial sector.

Deputy Minister of Finance Tseng Ming-chung said local banks will be able to serve more Taiwan businesses operating in mainland China; set up branches in villages and townships; establish service units in Fujian and handle mainland Chinese investment in Taiwan’s bond, stock and fund markets,

Presently, mainland Chinese subsidiaries of local banks can only accept Taiwan business customers whose firms are registered with China. Under the agreement, Taiwan-invested firms registered in third countries will be able to enjoy financial services provided by banks from Taiwan.

This means the local banking sector can greatly expand its customer base, Tseng said. He noted that Taiwan customers as a percentage of their mainland Chinese branches’ total customer base will shoot up from 5% to 95%.

The number of Taiwan-invested business accounts with banking units from Taiwan is likely to jump from less than 100,000 to more than one million.

The agreement also reduces minimum registered capital to US$4.89 million and US$1.6 million for a branch and sub-branch, respectively.