President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of January 15 with Lord Mayor of the City of London Fiona Woolf. In addition to extending a warm welcome to Lord Mayor Woolf, the president also briefed her on the current state of and future prospects for the conduct of renminbi (RMB) business by Taiwan's financial institutions.
In remarks, President Ma noted that the UK is Taiwan's third largest trading partner and second largest export market in Europe. Bilateral trade in 2012 reached some US$6.9 billion, he said. As for cooperation in the banking industry, the president pointed out, the Bank of Taiwan, Chang Hwa Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Commercial Bank, and Mega International Commercial Bank operate branches in the UK with a combined total of about 1.85 billion pounds (about NT$91 billion) in assets. Furthermore, three British banks (Standard Chartered Bank, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., and Barclays Bank PLC) have established two subsidiaries and five branches in Taiwan, he stated, and Aviva, a major player in the British insurance industry, has established a joint venture here.
As for the securities industry, President Ma stated, Taiwan's SinoPac Securities has set up a subsidiary in the UK, while many Taiwanese companies have listed global depositary receipts on the London Stock Exchange. At the same time, the British asset management company Schroders Investment Management Limited is an active participant in Taiwan's securities market, he noted. President Ma said he feels that cooperation between the two countries in the aforementioned sectors has already begun to take shape, adding that he hopes interaction can be expanded in even more areas.
The president stated that according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), in the third quarter of last year Taiwan was the largest contributor to growth in usage of the RMB in the Asia-Pacific region. RMB holdings in Taiwan are steadily increasing, and close industrial and trade cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is helping Taiwan to develop into an offshore RMB center that companies—especially Taiwan-invested companies in the mainland, as well as mainland Chinese enterprises—can use to manage their RMB funds and raise capital. He commented that Taiwan is pleased that international financial centers and the business world is taking Taiwan's efforts seriously, and our government hopes that British companies will take this opportunity to increase investment here. The president also said he welcomes British companies to collaborate with Taiwanese counterparts in the expansion of RMB business.
President Ma spoke positively about cooperation between Taiwan and the UK in the financial services sector. He noted that London, as an international financial center, is actively working to establish itself as an offshore RMB center, and in this regard has a time zone advantage over Asian nations. Meanwhile, Taiwan has a large pool of RMB, which means that the two markets are complementary and thus have the potential to forge even closer cooperation and ties.