Taiwan Business Bank Conquers New York

State-run Taiwanese bank Taiwan Business Bank (TBB) is moving into a new market. Reports last weekend (Jan. 2) said the financial institution will be setting up shop in New York after receiving clearance late last week from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board to begin operating in the country.

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The bank issued a statement announcing the new branch location on Thursday (Dec. 31).

TBB already operates on the U.S. West Coast but is looking to expand across the East, reports said. The new New York location will bring the number of overseas branches for the bank from six to seven. Already, TBB operates a location in Los Angeles. The rest are non-U.S. locations, with branches in Australia, Hong Kong and China.

TBB focuses its banking services on the small and medium-sized business market, according to reports. It is Taiwan’s fourteenth largest bank with about $45 billion in assets, as of late June 2015, according to the latest data available.

Taiwan secured attention from neighboring eCommerce giant Alibaba last year when it announced plans to invest about $316 million in Taiwanese startups in March. The venture capital funding, the company said, would be targeted towards companies in Taiwan that would grow to be Alibaba customers.

Months later, however, regulators in Taiwan banned Alibaba B2B eCommerce site Taobao, which was ordered to depart the Taiwanese market within six months after it registered as a Singaporean corporation instead of a mainland Chinese company — a violation of Taiwanese regulations.