I am applying for a loan now as much as a test as anything else.
Yesterday I went to check abour a new securities account in First Bank where my salary is paid into. I’ve banked there for years . So I go up to the sole securities desk , say I want to open an account and the guy just says ‘bu xing’, ‘waiguoren bu xing’ (he can guess I’m a waiguoren but doesn’t know that for sure ). I said that’s not true there’s no law against foreigners owning securities. And I waved my securities book from Megabank in his face. Then he said it was ‘First Bank’s rules’. I said I didn’t believe that show me the rules. Then I went to do some other mundane stuff in the bank, he found me asked for my arc and passport and started to process my application straight away (both for Taiwan stock trading and overseas stocks trading ). It took well over two hours. I believe it takes locals about 1.5 hours. The amount of paperwork to sign was overwhelming and you have to enter all information in anew and sign it (it doesn’t matter if they have it already in their system, maybe they are not permitted to use it). After two hours of this I made friends with this guy and the teller processing my appn. It seems there’s a major cultural problem and lack of training of how to deal with diversity in the bank’s.
The staff spent a lot of time asking me personal details about my earnings, my job, my position, the bank’s are very keen to collect this kind of information. It’s their golddust. I asked why do you need this info you won’t even give me a loan. The wheels turned very slowly in their heads…
In fact some of what this guy said to me , who actually turned out to be a nice guy , could put them up for a lawsuit if I recorded him according to Taiwan legislation I’d say. The lawyers know better I guess.