Taiwanese banks favor Vietnam, Hong Kong & China for overseas operations

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 15, 2006. It reports that Taiwan's domestic banks have so far established a total of 117 overseas branches and representative offices, with 25 of these located in the United States.

According to statistics provided by the Bureau of Monetary Affairs under the Financial Supervisory Commission, the United States has been the most popular place for Taiwanese banks to set up overseas branches. The second popular place is Hong Kong, which has the advantages of being one of Asia's financial centers. Other places that Taiwanese banks have preferred to establish overseas offices include Vietnam, Singapore and China.

Among Taiwan's total overseas banking operations, 38 are representative offices. Vietnam has 9 of these offices, followed by China with 7. These figures indicate that Taiwanese banks tend to focus on the markets in Southeast Asia, where more and more Taiwanese manufacturers have relocated their production lines.

Statistics from the Bureau of Monetary Affairs show that most of Taiwan's domestic banks established their overseas branches before 1991. Most of these were located in metropolitan cities such as New York and Los Angeles in the United States. However, in the past three years, Taiwanese banks have preferred to set up their overseas operations in neighboring Hong Kong, Vietnam and China.

Indeed, in recent years more and more Taiwanese banks have chosen Vietnam as their new target for overseas operations, because an increasing number of Taiwanese manufacturers in traditional industries have moved or intend to move their production there.

It is expected that China will eventually become the No. 1 choice of Taiwanese banks in setting up overseas branches, because numerous Taiwanese manufacturers have already relocated there.