Taiwan bank consolidation no panacea, say critics

Consolidation of Taiwanese banks has been put back on the table after the ministry of finance asked Mega Financial Holding Company to assess the feasibility of it acquiring other state-owned banks, writes Rashmi Kumar. Restructuring the banking sector has been broached many times as a way to ease fierce domestic competition, and stabilise loan pricing, but market watchers not only think the plans are unlikely to be fruitful, but will not make things any better for banks even if they do happen.