Bloomberg
Former Cathay United Bank Co chairman Kuo Ming-jian speaks at an asset management event in Taipei in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of Cathay United Bank Co
Cathay Financial plans to appoint Kuo as a senior adviser to continue providing professional advisory services, it added.The corporate departure comes a day after Tsai Chen-yu (蔡鎮宇) — a son of Cathay Financial’s founder Tsai Wan-lin (蔡萬霖) and brother of Tsai Hong-tu — publicly criticized Kuo, arguing his numerous outside appointments compromised his suitability to lead the bank.
Earlier this week, an argument between Tsai and Kuo at the bank’s headquarters in Taipei escalated into a physical altercation, prompting a police response, local media reported.The dispute highlights mounting friction within one of Taiwan’s most powerful financial dynasties over outside board seats and conflict-of-interest allegations, intensifying scrutiny of the group’s corporate governance.An internal review by Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (國泰投信) found that Kuo’s position at chip company Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯電子) created an investment conflict of interest across eight of its funds.The compliance breach forced the investment trust unit to restate the net asset values of the impacted funds. Cathay Securities Investment Trust on Thursday said that it would pay about NT$490 million in compensation to about 50,500 investors.The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has launched an on-site inspection of Cathay Securities Investment Trust and officials will seek to figure why the unit was not informed of Kuo’s role at Alchip, the regulator said at a news conference on Thursday.The FSC added that Cathay United Bank has records of all of Kuo’s outside appointments, including the dates on which each was disclosed.
