Barclays Grows Its Asia Pacific Presence with a New Subsidiary in Taiwan

The British universal bank Barclays today announces the establishment of its wholly-owned subsidiary, called Barclays Securities Taiwan Ltd (BSTL), to provide brokerage and underwriting services to the firm's global and Taiwanese corporate and institutional clients.

Barclays has secured the approval from the Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB), the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) in Taiwan.

Barclays has been in Asia Pacific for over 50 years and Taiwan is a strategically important market for the bank's Asia Pacific.

Subject to obtaining the relevant licensing approval, BSTL is expected to be fully operational in Q3 2022. It will be led by Shella Wang, currently Head of Macro Distribution, North Asia, who has also been appointed as Chairman of the subsidiary.

"The buildout of our platform in Taiwan demonstrates our commitment to growing our Asia Pacific franchise,"said Jaideep Khanna, Head of Barclays, Asia Pacific."The Taiwan subsidiary will enable us to further engage with our Taiwanese institutional clients and help them gain access to our suite of world class corporate and investment bank product offerings and solutions."

"The onshore subsidiary will further seize growth opportunities in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)-linked financing and investment, as well as the Formosa market in Taiwan,"added Ms. Wang."Over the years, we have demonstrated our strength in our cross-asset product business and have been building a strong pipeline with our Taiwanese clients. Today's announcement marks the firm's commitment to deepening our client reach and investment in this market."

In recent years, Barclays has been actively expanding its presence in key markets in Asia Pacific, including Australia, China/Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan and Singapore. Most recently, the firm was granted license to operate as a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) in Australia.