Last August 27, at the Elite Hall of TABF, Chairperson Hou Chin-ying of Far Eastern Commercial Bank accepted the Trust 2.0 Project award from Premier Cho Jung-tai of the Executive Yuan. After the ceremony, I saw her off to her car. She looked back at the TABF building and said to me in Taiwanese, “I built this building.” I replied, “I know, it's well-built." She then said, “I don't know any of these people.” I replied, “Everyone knows you.” In fact, the importance of Chairperson Hou to the development of TABF lies not only in its hardware, but more importantly, in her pragmatic spirit of talent cultivation, which has remained deeply rooted in the minds of colleagues within the TABF until the present day.

The internationalization of financial education is one important manifestation of this. This August 29, with government funding, and hosted by TABF, 20 Taiwanese youths participated in the FinTech Generation: International Finance in Practice program, part of the NT$10 billion Youth Billion Overseas Dream Fund. After two weeks of training at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in Germany, participants delivered fluent English reports and created websites to demonstrate how their ideas could be implemented. Additionally, each group showcased their creativity within a very short time, editing the two weeks of activities into a video which seamlessly integrated various elements including the storyline, German language, lyrics, music, and humor. At the end, the Vice President Fatma Dirkes praised it as the most successful short-term training collaboration program she had ever seen, and expressed great admiration for Taiwan's commitment and perseverance in investing in talent.

Following this training program, supported by funding from the Bankers Association, we led 33 participants from the Leading Executive Apex Program (LEAP) on a week-long overseas training trip to Luxembourg and Frankfurt. Each with over 20 years of practical financial experience, the participants came from 21 financial institutions, and the entire program lasted six months. At the start of the training in June, we emphasized the need for two-way communication and mutual learning during the training, and invited alumni from the previous cohort to share their experiences on language barriers. Despite our initial worries that the trainees would not interact well with the international lecturers, the final result was an enthusiastic Q&A session, even affecting our lunch schedule. More importantly, each group was proactive in asking in-depth questions, clearly indicating that everyone came prepared. Many of the international lecturers expressed a desire to come to Taiwan to see it for themselves.

As Taiwanese companies expand their global reach from emerging markets into advanced markets, the financial services industry must accelerate its internationalization to provide a more comprehensive set of services. Therefore, innovative and diverse international training is a strategic priority for TABF. The cover story of this issue of the Taiwan Banker focuses on how the financial industry responds to the challenges and opportunities in different markets during the internationalization of Taiwanese companies. In addition, it also features tributes to Chairwoman Hou by former TABF President Hsueh Chi, and Chairwoman Chen Su-tian of Mitra-Duetsche Partners. On October 12, in collaboration with the Department of Finance and Alumni Association of National Chengchi University, TABF will hold a memorial forum for Chairwoman Hou under the theme of Commitment and Innovation, helping ensure that her spirit continues to inspire future progress.