Banking: Taiwan’s feet of clay

The island’s biggest lenders are pushing hard into Asia, snapping up regional banks in a quest for growth and higher returns. Back at home, though, the island’s banking sector remains as moribund as ever, hobbled by too small a market and powerful unions.

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Crippled by powerful unions, a surfeit of competition at home and a lack of drive overseas, Taiwan’s banks have long been viewed as unambitious underachievers. Asia now boasts a small army of powerful regional lenders – think of ANZ, DBS and Maybank, to name but a few. All have benefited directly from the region’s long boom and from snapping up the market share left behind after the financial crisis by retreating western rivals. 

Yet not one lending institution on this list hails from Taiwan.

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