Meeting between Taiwan and China monetary leaders in next 3 months

Cross straits banking stands to receive a needed shot in the arm.

Financial regulators from Taiwan and China are to attend the first biannual meeting between the two countries' financial regulators within the first half of this year.

Kuei Hsien-nung, director-general of the Banking Bureau under the Financial Supervisory Commission, said Taiwan would invite Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, to share experiences and discuss issues of concern to both Taiwanese and Chinese banks.

Kuei said the meeting will also explore the possibility of holding cross-Taiwan Strait seminars and allowing cooperation in areas such as personnel training. Meetings between banking regulators of Taiwan and China began in 2011 after memorandums of understanding was signed in 2010.

Taiwanese Premier Sean Chen has asked the commission to work on expanding regulatory cooperation to the areas of insurance and securities to ensure healthy cross-strait development in the sector.

He also Chen instructed the commission to help combine Taiwanese banks' advantages of being able to operate in both Taiwan and China to increase the prospects for the sector.

Since six Taiwanese banks' Chinese branches are to begin Chinese yuan business with Taiwanese enterprises later this year, the commission should negotiate a clear and practical definition of this new business, Chen said.

Many Taiwanese companies invest in China through overseas subsidiaries and might be considered foreign enterprises as a result.