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The Economic Roundup is an excerpted translation of the Chinese-language ROC Economic Yearbook published by the Economic Daily News, a sister publication of the Taiwan Economic News. The yearbook is the most comprehensive and authoritative source for understanding the fundamentals of Taiwan's economy, both in the macro and micro aspects. The excerpted translation gives foreign readers a concise view of the island's overall economic picture. It is divided into four parts: general economy, primary industries, secondary industries, and tertiary industries.
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| Tertiary Industry > Financial Industry |
| Via the sales of distressed assets, the issuance of REITs (real estate investment trusts), appropriation for or write-off of bad debts, domestic banks endeavored to improve the fundamentals of their operations in 2005. However, "banking M&A (merger and acquisition)," and "credit- and cash-card turmoil" were still the major events shaking the industry. In 2005, the regular approved three merger cases between domestic banks. Among other forms of M&A, the case of Taishin Financial Holding is the most shocking one in the industry. Taishin acquired 22.5% stake in Chang Hwa Commercial Bank at the exorbitant price of over NT$30 billion, prompting other large financial holding firms to accelerate the search for takeover targets or zero in on potential takeover targets. The card-debt turmoil not only forced banks to appropriate large amount of bad-debt reserves, impacting their profits, and prompted some to contract or even suspend card businesses in order to lower management risks. As a result, many banks started to adjust their business strategies and restructure their organizations. |
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