By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterState-run Taiwan Cooperative Financial Holding Co (合庫金控) expects earnings to improve this year on the back of healthy economic fundamentals and better asset quality after its main unit wrote down bad loans linked to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船) last year, top executives said yesterday. The nation’s largest lender by number of branches, Taiwan Cooperative Bank wrote off NT$1.71 billion for its share in the syndicated loan to Ching Fu and recognized another NT$1.63 billion loss caused by TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空). The bank plans to set up two outlets in Cambodia by the end of this year to take advantage of fast-growing business demand in the Southeast Asian nation, Taiwan Cooperative Financial chairman Lei Chung-dar (雷仲達) said. Taiwan Cooperative Bank ranks second in terms of lending operations in Taiwan, with a market share of 10 percent, next only to state-owned Bank of Taiwan’s (台灣銀行) 12 percent. “There is little room for growth in this regard, as mortgage lending has almost approached the regulatory limit,” he said.

Source: Taipei Times March 12, 2018 15:56 UTC