TAIPEI: Cathay Financial Holding Co. Ltd. plans to recruit an estimated 7,000 new employees this year to expand business at home and overseas.
At a press conference earlier this month, the nation’s largest financial services provider also said it will offer higher annual bonuses for employees this year after earning record profits of NT$49.8 billion (US$1.58 billion) and earnings per share of NT$3.94 last year. Company President Lee Chang-ken (???) said employees in the company’s sales department could even receive more than 12 months’ salary as a bonus. Cathay Financial’s compensation committee will also hold an annual meeting on a salary raise plan scheduled for April, Lee added. In addition to rewarding its current employees, the company plans to recruit management associates including 12-15 global management personnel and 35 “Cathay management” personnel, each with an annual salary of NT$1 million (US$31,663). Global management associates will be offered a two-and-a-half-year training program while Cathay management associates will receive a three-and-a-half-year training program, according to Lee. It will be a stiff challenge for the nation’s largest financial service provider this year to smash the record high growth posted last year, particularly in its life insurance segments, Lee admitted. In comparison, profitability at Cathay Financial’s banking business was relatively stable, providing more than 40 percent of the group’s overall net income last year, Lee said. The European Central Bank’s quantitative easing monetary stimulus is expected to help bolster local capital markets this year, he predicted.
