Taiwan

With their close links to the US, Taiwanese have long regarded Citi as their go-to international bank, a status that the likes of HSBC and Standard Chartered are normally accustomed to in much of Asia.

E.Sun likes to cite the Taiwan government’s annual gongs honouring this heavily industrialized island’s ‘outstanding small and medium enterprises’ as validation of its SME business. The awards are assessed by the economics ministry and, since 2014, a third of the winners have been E.Sun clients.

The clustered skyscrapers at CTBC’s futuristic headquarters in Taipei’s Nangang district betray the reality that the enterprise housed within is just a bank. With its shopping malls, branded stores and dedicated infrastructure integrated into Taipei’s grid, it feels more like a miniature city here, or at the very least an important government ministry complex. Which, in many respects, CTBC is.

The clustered skyscrapers at CTBC’s futuristic headquarters in Taipei’s Nangang district betray the reality that the enterprise housed within is just a bank. With its shopping malls, branded stores and dedicated infrastructure integrated into Taipei’s grid, it feels more like a miniature city here, or at the very least an important government ministry complex. Which, in many respects, CTBC is.

Expanded rankings and additional categories, including other comparative and bespoke data, are available for purchase. Please contact Mee Ling Lee at meeling.lee@euromoneyasia.com for our data packages.

The 29th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world. A total of 6,540 valid individual responses from 3,100 different institutions, including 411 hedge funds, were received.

CTBC is trying to do what foreign banks have rarely done in Japan – own a successful local firm… Good luck with that.

Yuanta Securities

The island state’s lenders and brokers are aggressively seeking out new wealth management opportunities across Asia as competition rises at home. Their strong brands and growing branch networks provide advantages, but can they really compete with global rivals?