On November 30th CITO representatives traveled to Taipei to visit Svenska Handelsbanken. The CITO officers were greeted by Amy Chen, chief representative at the Taipei Representative Office. Amy described the function of the Representative Office and how it aims to better assist Handelsbanken’s Nordic, British and Netherlands corporate clients operating in the region. She provided the CITO officers with a lot of valuable insights in how the Taiwanese banking system functions and how it differs from the Swedish system.
Svenska Handelsbanken is a full-service bank with a nationwide branch network in Sweden, UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Netherlands. Founded in 1871, Handelsbanken is one of Sweden’s leading banks with 822 branches in 24 countries, and more than 11 500 employees. The Asian network consists of branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore with additional representative offices in Beijing, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai.
Part of the services offered by the Taipei Representative Office is providing market and trade information, providing contacts with Taiwanese business community and banking industry, assisting in business negotions, trouble solving logistics and providing interpretation services.
Furthermore Amy Chen shared with the CITO officers many interesting stories about Taiwanese history providing a deeper understanding of Taiwanese culture. Business etiquette and cultural differences are crucial when doing business in Asia and the CITO officers are very grateful to Amy for taking the time to share her personal experience operating in the banking industry with us.
CITO would like to thank Handelsbanken for hosting us, and specificly Amy Chen for providing such an insightful visit and friendly reception.
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