This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 24, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: Taiwanese CTBC Bank Co Ltd plans to open up to five branches in Malaysia and expects to apply for a banking licence from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) next year.

Speaking to reporters after the opening of its representative office here yesterday, CTBC Bank executive vice-president and chief strategy officer Frank Shih said the bank is looking at setting up two to five branches in Malaysia if it manages to get approval from BNM.

“The headquarters would be in Kuala Lumpur. We are looking at one or two branches in the Kuala Lumpur area, while other branches will be in Penang and Johor,” he said.

“We are focusing on corporate instead of retail, so we don’t need to have a lot of branches,” he said, adding that the bank will consider setting up an office in Labuan too.

He said the banking group is ready to inject US$100 million (RM430 million) to meet its capital requirement to set up a subsidiary in Malaysia.

While some observers may opine that the capital requirement is high, Shih said the banking group is prepared to invest the sum. “In fact, we are ready to inject more than that,” he added.

As for the banking licence, Shih said the group will apply for it in one year’s time.

“This is the usual practice here in Malaysia. Foreign banks will have to operate its representative office for a year, before applying for a licence. But if we can speed up the process, it will be less than a year. We will work on that,” he said.

Shih also noted  that there are increasingly more Taiwanese manufacturers who used to invest in China moving some of their money to Asean countries.

“We are seeing this trend already,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said CTBC Bank was attracted to Malaysia because the country had some advantages within the Asean region, namely its stable economic growth over the years, decent infrastructure, the availability of multilingual talents and its strategic location in the region.

CTBC Bank is the first Taiwanese bank approved by BNM to enter Malaysia in the last 17 years.

At the end of 2015, CTBC Bank will have 149 branches throughout Taiwan, and 106 overseas outlets in various countries.

CTBC Bank boasts NT$1.73 trillion (RM227.98 billion) in deposits and NT$2.16 trillion in total assets — the most of any privately operated bank in Taiwan, according to its website.

Taiwan represents the fourth- largest foreign investing country in Malaysia, with more than 1,700 Taiwanese businesses operating in the country.