FinanceAsia Country Achievement Awards - Taiwan

Best Domesic Commercial Bank Chinatrust Commercial

The banking sector in Taiwan has some, if not all, the problems of its equivalents in mainland China. Often used as instruments of capital allocation by the government, inefficient, overstaffed and rife with poorly analyzed loans, the sector was crying out for improvement in the run-up to the island s inclusion in the World Trade Organization WTO. Also, with over 40 banks and many more non-bank financial institutions the sector is unhealthily crowded, although plans are afoot for the merger of several of the largest state banks.

Still, some things are improving. Government banks have had their monopoly grip on the financial sector loosened by the creation...