The Monetary Board of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approved the application of First Commercial Bank of Taiwan to set up an office in the Philippines, making it the third Taiwan-based lender to enter the country since 2014.
The latest approval brought to two the number of applications approved by the board this year. Bangko Sentral approved in May the acquisition of Wealth Development Bank by Woori Bank, South Korea’s second-largest bank from the Gaisano family’s Viscal Development Corp.
“The application for branch of First Commercial Bank [of Taiwan] was approved by MB [Monetary Board] last Thursday,” Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in a text message Wednesday.
Espenilla said the board was currently evaluating the application of another Asian bank planning to expand in the Philippines.
Available information on its Web site showed that First Commercial Bank was established on Nov. 26, 1899 as Savings Bank of Taiwan. In 1912, it merged with Commercial and Industrial Bank of Taiwan, retaining the name of the latter, and in 1923 it again merged with Chia-I Bank and Hsin-Kao Bank.
It changed its name to Taiwan Industrial and Commercial Bank in 1947 and First Commercial Bank of Taiwan in 1949. In 1976, it was given its current name, First Commercial Bank, in order to strengthen the operating strategy of business internationalization.
The bank was transformed from a government entity into a private bank in 1998. After the establishment of First Financial Holding Co. on Jan. 2, 2003, the bank became a subsidiary of First Financial Group. The bank has now been in business for more than a century.
The bank’s capital stood at NT$86.244 billion as of end-September 2015. In terms of total assets and Tier 1 capital, it ranked among the world’s top 200 banks. It currently has 7,298 employees and 190 domestic branches.
It has 32 global networks in major international metropolitan areas and financial centers.
Earlier reports from Taiwan Business magazine said the Taiwanese banking sector had “to look elsewhere in the region after booking a net loss in 2015 for the first time in nine years as a feeble domestic economy and China’s slowing growth battered balance sheets. Reports said earnings fell 0.2 percent year-on-year to NT$319.6 billion ($9.75 billion), according to the Financial Supervisory Commission.”
It said while the Chinese operations of Taiwanese banks remained profitable, overall earnings in China fell by nearly 46 percent to NT$1.97 billion ($60.1 million). It was the first annual decline since Taiwanese banks expanded into China in December 2010.