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Best bank: Chinatrust Best M&A house: Citi Best investment bank: Morgan Stanley
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Chinatrust remains the best positioned bank in Taiwan. It has been smartest and most successful in building businesses that generate fee rather than interest income, particularly wealth management, the one great cash cow left in Taiwanese banking. In 2007, the fee income ratio at Chinatrust hit 42.48%, among the best in the industry; the share of the national wealth management client market has grown from 11% to 18% since 2004, according to the bank itself, with assets of more than NT$1 trillion ($33 billion) for 320,000 wealth management customers by the end of 2007. Revenue from wealth management grew 133% between 2006 and 2007.
Chinatrust has many more strings to its bow than wealth management: it holds one-third of the country’s internet banking market, has a sophisticated risk management system, low non-performing loans at 1.66%,