E.Sun Commercial Bank is a lender on the rise. It is unusual in Taiwan in many ways, not least due to the nature of its investor base.
Its shareholders include a host of Western institutional investors, as well as Morgan Stanley, mainland lender ICBC, and the private equity arm of Singapore’s GIC Special Investments.
Its private banking division’s star is also on the rise. The number of customers with assets under management of more than NT$30 million ($1 million), as well as its total AuM, both grew by more than 15% for the third year straight in 2019. Its 40-strong team of relationship managers focuses on succession planning, leveraging individual talents and qualifications.
To reinforce and diversify their skill base, RMs took part in 79 internal training sessions in 2019, over a course of 86 hours, meeting with external lawyers, accountants and offshore trust experts.
Succession services are at the heart of the bank’s wealth management business. Under the leadership of chief executive Joseph Huang, E.Sun keeps abreast of regulatory changes that affect onshore and offshore customers.
When lawmakers changed the tax rules in 2019 to make it easier for funds to repatriate capital, its relationship managers were on the phone to clients, advising them about ways to restructure succession plans. Its long-time investment in digital, meanwhile, ensures it can draw quickly and efficiently from a deep well of data when handling client requests.
It stands out in other ways too. E.Sun has long been one of the strongest lenders in the environmental, social and governance realm, and it works tirelessly with clients to ensure their money is put to work in ways that do not harm the environment or society.
It doesn’t pay quarterly or half-yearly commission to its sales force or to consultants: it believes that to do so generates a short-term attitude to investment and leads to miss-selling.