Taipei, July 24 (CNA) CTBC Bank, the flagship banking entity of CTBC Financial Holding Co., took first place in the latest competitiveness rankings for the local banking sector for 2017, the organizers said Tuesday.
The competitiveness rankings for 2017 were released by the Center for the Study of Banking & Finance (CSBF) under National Taiwan University and the Banking Education Association of Taiwan (BEAT).
CTBC Bank scored 87.81 points, higher than any other bank registered in Taiwan, in the competitiveness evaluation, ahead of King's Town Bank (86.35 points) and E. Sun Commercial Bank (85.55 points).
In a news conference, Hwang Dar-yeh (黃達業), honorary chairman of the CSBF, said the evaluation, which covered all 38 Taiwanese banks, looked into not only their financial strength but also non-financial factors such as management views of development strategies and expansion overseas.
Hwang said the evaluation also focused on how the banks pushed for mergers under the guidelines of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), the top financial regulator in Taiwan.
Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗), who previously served as chairman of the FSC, said he supported the government's policy to encourage the merger of local financial institutions in the current saturated banking market in Taiwan.
Tseng suggested future evaluations of banks' competitiveness should include their efforts in the field of consumer protection and how banks strengthen their corporate responsibility operations.
Citibank Taiwan came fourth with 84.87 points, ahead of Cathay United Bank (84.84 points), Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (84.48 points), Mega International Commercial Bank (84.42 points), Taishin International Bank (83.47 points), HSBC Taiwan (82.70 points) and Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (82.43 points).
Mega Bank is the only government-led bank to rank top 10 in the list.
Hwatai Bank came bottom of the rankings with a score of 69.59 points. Hwang said the bank incurred a loss of NT$1.2 billion (US$39.1 million) in 2017, when its non-performing loan ratio hit 1.8 percent, the highest in the local banking sector.
(By Tsai Yi-chu and Frances Huang)
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