We are moving to Taipei in June from the US, and I’m currently setting up my investement visa. My CPA there suggested I use Taishin International Bank to create my business account, as the paperwork for USA citizens is annoying to banks and most don’t want our business. He has had success with Taishin however. My research shows its a small bank, not in the top 10 in Taiwan. Anyone here have experience with them?
Also I’m searching for an Investment Broker/Advisor that speaks decent English, to make market investements with. If anyone can recommend someone that would be much appreciated. I’ll be there in March to open my account and investigate this aspect too. Thanks!
I have Taishin Bank account (since late 1990s) and everytime I wanted to wire money back to the US, I had to go to a bank branch’s counter and fill out the form in person.
I always ask Taishin about being able to do it online, but they don’t offer it. Last time I asked was about one year ago, fyi.
Taishin is one of the biggest private, non-government owned banks. So, yes, it may not be in top 10, but I’m guessing all those in top 10 are government banks. Service shitty.
Try Bank Sinopac. I subsequently set up an account there and can wire money to US account on their online website or APP.
Chinatrust is a more international bank, too.
If you have like NT$1,000,000 (around U$30,000) in a local bank account (non-government owned bank), you should freely get placed with their Wealth Management department. This department offers separate office area in a bank branch (sometimes upstairs), where you can do all normal banking services, with nearly zero wait time. They can also offer investment advice, but typically not on single stocks. More for ETF funds, or specific higher yield (yet a bit riskier) financial products that the bank sells.
A bank like Bank Sinopac or others could introduce you to their securities side of their financial company, where you can open up an individual brokerage account and buy/sell Taiwan shares. If you ask, you could even get English research reports from that local house in
.pdf format sent to your inbox.
I had my first experience making a overseas transaction with them earlier this week, took me almost an hour at the branch to get it done. How do companies normally do this? There must be hundres of thousands of companies doing multiple overseas transactions daily, I cannot see how they would all be queuing up at the branch office.
i have been with them since late-1990s.
i have yearly asked them if foreigners can do online wiring overseas. Reply always no.
I switched to Bank Sinopac, and can do it…So, unless they’ve changed policy in last year or so…
What they do for Taiwanese and foreigners could be two different things.
So, this was a local Taiwanese company(which bizarrely doesn’t have my name anywhere on it, but because I had the chop with me I could make the transfer anyway)
They told my wife, who is the company owner, that there is no other way than to do it at the branch. But, this just doesn’t add up to me, companies like Foxconn must be doing thousands of overseas transactions per day, it just wouldn’t work if they need to be done at the branch.
see, you had same experience as I have had for over 20 years, and yet your company is local.
And yes, if you have “chop” and passbook and/or account owner’s ID, then such things can be done in Taiwan. Go figure!
Have your wife set up account with Bank Sinopac. wiring overseas no problem. Even government-owned Huanan Bank allows online wires overseas.
Yeah, I just had the chop and the passbook with me.
Only complication I had making the transfer was that they couldn’t(their SOP I guess) write the account holders name on the form(its in Chinese so I couldn’t write it myself) for me. I asked the guy standing at the counter next to me to write it for me, handed it back to the person serving me and that was okay,
Yeah, I will try to do that. There is a branch next to where I live as well.
Thank you all for the speedy replies. I was hoping the smaller private bank would be better than the big banks in terms of service, that’s how it is in the US. Bummer!
The difficulty with me is I need to open a Business account, without an ARC (yet). I will try the other ones you recommended first, then if they deny me go back to Taishin Bank. I will have a high-worth account, so I will ask about their special services, thanks for that tip!
In Re: to the transfers that is annoying, but not a huge concern in my case. I only need to make one big inbound transfer TO Taishin from the US to satisfy the visa requirements. The rest of my day to day banking needs will be done through my US bank that has free ATM fees in TW, I won’t need many, if any wire transfers. Sounds like the service is not good overall though, so I’ll try to avoid that bank if I can but I only have 4 days to set up my account on vacation in March so I may have to settle for Taishin. I suppose I can always move the account once I am in TW and have my ARC and address all set.
I asked megabank if I could wire online and was told no, it’s blocked for foreigners.
My HSBC bank can do it no issues.
My only issue with them was they harassed me yearly for my new arc copy otherwise transfers were turned off. They like high value individuals (not me ) so you can consider it. If you have a HSBC account set up in another country they can link to do instant transfers
That is normal. Every time my ARC is renewed, I have to go to my 2 banks, one credit card bank, and one brokerage account to show them my new ARC card with the new expiration date.
I was told I can’t get a Business account with HSBC, only Personal. That was my first choice as I can do an account here first. But no I’ll probably stop in a HSBC branch next month to verify that I can’t do a business account. You’d think they would want my high net account, but maybe there are regualtions they can’t deal with US foreigners. They were busted for money lanudering a while back, could be on a blacklist for US.
I have a few accounts , only HSBC has insisted I do this… never a peep out of taishin, esun ,the post office, etc for eternity.
Mind you if I’m there for other business and they notice the arc is updated they will take a copy but I haven’t lost functionality in the past by not providing it.
As I’m aware only first bank, HSBC, and union require copies of an arc to get a new card, all other banks issue a normal 5 to 7 yr credit card.
It’s probably a good idea. You may get a surprise by getting international withdrawals turned off when you need them most.
That’s what I expect with Taiwan banks. And when they goof up they won’t let you speak to their manager, he’s usually hiding in the back room. I’ve never seen what I call a professional bank in Taiwan, imo they all are horrible
I’ll probably stop in a HSBC branch next month to verify that I can’t do a business account. You’d think they would want my high net account, but maybe there are regualtions they can’t deal with US foreigners. They were busted for money lanudering a while back, could be on a blacklist for US.