President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of June 5 with a delegation led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan Chase) President and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon. He welcomed the members of the group on their first visit to Taiwan and briefed them on the state of Taiwan's banking sector in recent years.
In remarks, President Ma stated that JPMorgan Chase is a globally renowned financial services institution that has been in business for over 200 years. It has branches in 60 nations, and is a global leader in investment banking, asset management, financial transactions, and personal financial services, he said.
The president stated that JPMorgan Chase has expanded over the years through mergers and acquisitions, and safely made it through the global financial crisis. JPMorgan Chase, he said, is the number one bank in the United States in total assets and has the second highest capital of any international bank in the world. Moreover, President Ma noted, Forbes magazine in its 2013 Global 2000 list of the world's biggest public companies published in April of last year ranked JPMorgan Chase in third place. The outstanding performance of the institution has made it a leader in the global financial industry, he remarked.
The president noted that JPMorgan Chase has made a longstanding commitment to the Taiwan market, having had a presence here for over 40 years. Its operations here, he said, include banking, securities, investment trust, investment advisory, and asset management services. The institution provides its Taiwan customers a full range of global services, and does an outstanding job of fulfilling its corporate social responsibility. It has donated a total of over US$1.5 million to various causes here, and employees under its corporate umbrella have enthusiastically taken part in volunteer activities, he added. The total number of volunteer hours put in by the institution's staff has exceeded 14,000 hours, making JPMorgan Chase a model provider of community public service among private enterprises, he stated.
In discussing Taiwan's economy, President Ma mentioned that the government is making every effort to promote transition from an efficiency-driven to an innovation-driven economy. Policy-wise, he said, the government is actively promoting its "free economic pilot zones" to bring Taiwan in step with the rest of the world. At the same time, the president explained, Taiwan plans to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to ensure continued growth in Taiwan's external trade.
To further develop the economy, said President Ma, the government will continue to push deregulation and market liberalization in ways that will not affect stability. For example, he noted, the offshore banking units (OBUs) of banks are now subject to no restrictions on the products that they sell to (or buy from) non-residents, and Taiwan has established an offshore securities unit (OSU) system so that securities firms can conduct business involving foreign currency-denominated securities. In addition, Taiwan has also significantly expanded the range of services and financial products that domestic banking institutions can provide to ROC nationals. For instance, banks are now allowed to handle Renminbi derivatives. Preliminary success has been seen on all of these fronts, he said.
President Ma further pointed out that the Financial Supervisory Commission has already granted 13 securities firms approval to establish OSUs, which will enable them to provide a more diverse range of products and services to investors and enterprises. In the first quarter of this year, he remarked, domestic banks posted an aggregate pre-tax profit of NT$83.75 billion, up 24.4% from the year-ago period. In addition, the total profits of OBUs reached NT$25.96 billion, up 63.48% from the year-ago period, he said. Taiwan's banks this year, he mentioned, are expected to increase hiring by over 20,000 individuals. All of these developments point to the rapid development of Taiwan's banking industry, he stated.
President Ma also commented that Taiwan's banking community is also very interested in the topic of financial industry consolidation. A number of well-known domestic and foreign banking institutions have come to Taiwan to discuss possible tie-ups, so the valuable developmental experience of JPMorgan Chase will be instructive for Taiwan's government and banking industry as they work to promote development of Taiwan's banking sector.
The delegation meeting with the president also included JPMorgan Chase Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Judith Miller and Senior Country Officer in Taiwan at JPMorgan Chase Carl Chien (錢國維).