How the pandemic may have jolted an old-fashioned banking industry to make changes.
Walking into a Taiwanese bank for the first time, two years ago, was something of a misadventure for Catherine Chou.
Painstakingly slow, overly bureaucratic, and often edging into darkly comedic are common descriptions of foreigners and foreign-born Taiwanese, like Ms Chou, when they encounter Taiwan's banking industry for the first time.Overseas, Taiwan is synonymous with sophisticated high-tech companies like TSMC and Foxconn, who supply many of the parts essential to smartphones and computers. It is also home to a growing cryptocurrency market.
"Taiwan's banking industry is very, very traditional. There's a lot of bureaucratic issues in it, within the system, and it's slightly more rigid than other industries," says Sharon Hsu, a financial consultant at Enlighten Law Group in Taipei, which specialises in transnational finance. Many banking services still need to be carried out in person and banks are slow to adopt new practices, unless the government makes it explicitly clear that they are allowed, says David Stinson, a project researcher at TABF.
The pandemic, however, has helped finally nudge banking culture forwards a little - by making retail customers reconsider online banking and banking apps. An antiquated banking culture also risks tripping-up Taiwan's big plans to become a more attractive global destination, which includes luring 100,000 foreign workers and making English a widely-spoken language.
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