Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Fubon Financial's 2023 Annual Financial Results. At this time, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Questions will be taken at the end of the presentation, and this call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. And now, I will hand the call over to your host, Ms. Amanda Wang, IR Officer of Fubon Financial Holdings. Ms. Wang, please begin.
Thank you, and welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining Fubon Financial's year 2023 result call today. I'm Amanda from Investor Relations. There will be two sessions in the call today, including Fubon's performance review followed by the Q&A, hosted by the president, Mr. Harn, and the senior management team. For now, please turn to page 4 of the presentation. As you can see, Fubon's year 2023 result in 2023 is quite robust. In terms of the profit, we again are top among the holding companies for year the fifteenth year, and net profit also ranked top.
From subsidiaries performance, Fubon Life also is among the top in life sector, while Taipei Fubon Bank reached its record high, and the securities is the second highest in its earnings record. In terms of business expansion, we complete the merger in the banking sub and also securities under Fubon and Jih Sun's consolidation. That help us to expand our product offering and also the service network. In terms of the customers size, we also further expand on the Costco's affinity cards initiative. In overseas market, we also achieve a few new areas, including in Fubon Bank, China. We acquire Citi's mortgage portfolio. In Taipei Fubon Bank, we have a new branch application in Australia and India.
Also in Fubon Insurance, we apply for a new sub of reinsurance business in Malaysia, and it's already in operation in 2024. The next page highlights among our major four subsidiaries. In Fubon Life, the earnings strength comes from its underwriting performance. We are top two in premium performance. In investment return, we also achieve a decent level on back of the recurring return before hedge improved, while its capital position remain decent. In Taipei Fubon Bank, the profit reached its historical high, and mainly from its core earnings, including the NIM, NII fee income, while its trading treasury operation also grow. The customer's expansion that reflect in its wealth management, the fee income growth, and also credit card business.
We are now number two in terms of active cards. In Fubon Insurance, the full year result is a net loss, while it mainly due to the COVID-related impact. But it already gradually declined, starting from April, as we report monthly earnings. And in the investment return in Fubon Insurance also report a decent level of 3.6%. In Fubon Securities, the profits grow on back of the capital market strength. As we can see, the TAIEX trend up. And next page, in page 6. The profit grow and also EPS grow continue in year 2023 and first two months of this year.
We also see ourselves in Taipei Fubon Bank and Fubon Securities reach its record high for the first two months of the year. In page seven, again, if we look in year 2023, the result again. The growth mainly from a few areas, including Taipei Fubon Bank's revenue growth, Fubon Insurance earnings improvement from P&C as the COVID impact fade away, and securities and Fubon Hong Kong's earnings growth. While the pressure come from Life that we can see the hedge costs increase and capital gains coming down. And also, Fubon Bank (China) on back of a NIM decline and also provision expense that we can see more detail later. In page eight, the balance sheet expansion continues in the holding company.
The net worth increase is more significant, that is over 40% growth. While we see the growth continue in the first two months of this year, which we see a preliminary results for, February end of its book value is over TWD 850 billion, compared to over TWD 800 billion end of year 2023. The following page on ROA and ROE also shows the growth year-over-year. On page 10, the market position across the top four, the major four, subsidiaries that we can see continue to be quite decent. While the Fubon Life continue to be on solid number two, Fubon Insurance that's still on top one across major business lines.
In terms of Fubon Bank, the major business market share all reach 5% or higher market share, while its credit cards, active cards, grow more substantially. Fubon Securities also among top two, top three, upon the merger with Jih Sun Securities. In page 11, as we look forward for this year's business outlook, in Fubon Life, we see the opportunities from the transition into IFRS 17 adoption preparation. We are more focused on the regular pay and protection product that already delivered in year 2023's results, and that will continue to be the focus in year 2024. On back of that, we focus on our multiple channels relationship both internally and also external ones.
In Fubon Insurance, we aim to sustain the leading market position, while the risk management is our top priority. In Taipei Fubon Bank, the spread performance is a priority, and the fee business potentials from the cross-sell in wealth management and also from the credit card are both critical in our fee growth source. While in terms of our channels optimization, both online and offline, both domestic and overseas, that will be our management focus. In securities, on back of the strength of the daily turnover these days, we will further expand our strength in brokerage business and also to explore further in wealth management opportunities.
If we take for a bigger picture from the holding company perspective, in page 12, we see that externally, the growth opportunities from IFRS 17's adoption actually would deliver the growth opportunity across subsidiaries in whole- in Fubon. That will help us to grow further in the regular pay and protection type of product. While the challenges remains there, that including the inflation, the interest rates outlook, and also the geopolitical situation, that still gives us quite a few uncertainties. While we see that Fubon's strength, that we have our internal growth opportunity specifically from the customer base expansion, that give us the potential to further explore. And if we look at our customer base, that we have quite a decent base now.
We are talking about over 14 million customers. That's over half of Taiwan's population, that will give us the growth potential, and also the digitalization opportunity. And another opportunity to grow from Fubon's track record is that through the M&A and also strategic alliance, that will continue to be our growth potential as well. In page 13 from the last year's achievement, that we would like to share with you the honors that we win across holding company and also subsidiaries. In the following page, more concrete achievements that we would like to also share with you.
I think across the strategies we deliver, the concrete achievement, and also from a Green Finance, that we not only achieve our targets in 2023, and also we further add new goal in 2030 to reach higher levels. Okay, and page 16, regarding Fubon Life. The premiums performance, as you can see, is still a decline in terms of total premium, while it's pretty much echo how the markets look like. And the FYP also is a similar case, as Fubon declined by 11%, and the market also declined by about 13%.
Okay, in page 17, if we look deeper into the mix, in fact, we grow further into regular pay product and lower the percentage from single pay, and that's the key reason why the FYP amount came down in Fubon Life. But that actually give us a higher VNB and FYPE's growth. If we look at page 18, FYPE grew 47% and VNB 24%. That drive the VNB to FYP ratio further increase up to 21.8%... and in page 19, we can also see in terms of the sales channel, the tied agents now contribute nearly half of FYPE, that is 47.5%.
The contribution from bancassurance, if we rank across the industry, actually, we continue to keep our number one market position. And from FYPE perspective, in the right-hand side chart, across each channel, we can see the number, the FYPE amount actually all grow across all channels. While the bancassurance, including internal ones and external ones, put together, the growth rate is over 60%. That is quite strong. And on page 20, on the investment side, in terms of the allocation, the cash position remains at a relatively decent level, and we continue to adjust actively in response to the market condition.
While the increase year-over-year, we can see the equity position is one of the main areas. In fact, it reflects both the increase in valuation and also the percentage, the allocation. For the overseas fixed income, which account for the bulk of the asset allocation, in page 21, we can see the detail here. The mix is pretty much stable. And in page 22, from the investment income perspective, firstly, the total asset growth is about 5%, while the contribution of the investment income are largely from the recurring income. That also echo the higher rate environment and also the dollar's appreciation.
While the challenge comes from the hedge cost and also the fixed income's performance and capital gains from the equities side. So the total investment return in the bottom of this table came down to 3.79%. And in page 23, the hedge cost detail, we can see the upper left-hand side. In terms of the FX gain and loss, it actually has a big swing in Q4 last year, mainly on back of the expectation of the rate cut in Q4, and also the dollar weakened. While the full year basis, Fubon Life remain a FX gain for the full year. Okay.
The CS and NDF cost, which is the recurring type of hedging cost, that remain high as the interest rate spread between dollar and NT is still at a wide level. So the recurring return before hedge actually shows improvement year-over-year in your lower left-hand side chart, while the after hedge basis came down on back of the hedge cost increase. And in page 24, the spread performance between cost of liability and investment return, Fubon Life remain to deliver a positive spread of about 64 basis point, while the break-even point versus the hedge after hedge recurring return turn a slightly negative one on back of the higher hedge cost.
In page 25, the unrealized balance, we see improvement year-over-year, and it narrowed down by end of 2023, down to TWD 13.3 billion. We also see the further improvement trend year-to-date, and that turn to a positive level. That also drive up our book value. The book value end of 2023 already shows a quite meaningful growth compared to a year ago. The equity to asset ratio up to 9.8% end of 2023, and it go further up to over 10% as of February this year.
Next section, regarding Taipei Fubon Bank, the revenue growth of over 16%, the strong growth comes from across business lines. The NII grow over 8%, comes from both the margin expansion and also volume growth. While the fee income increased by nearly 40%, the wealth management and card business both contribute, and the treasury also grew quite meaningfully as well. The following page, in page 28, the loan volume growth is about 7.9%. That is higher than the market average growth of about 4%-5%... while the corporate and retail at about equally a strong level, about 8% above.
Page 29, the corporate banking business, now we can see the foreign currency loans strength of over 13% year-over-year growth, while the SMEs also another spotlight that grow over 11%. In retail business, in page 30, the mortgage growth of 8.9%, again, it outperformed the market growth of about 7%. While the consumer business, including the credit card and unsecured consumer loans, both grow at double-digit. Next slide, in page 31, the deposits outstanding is about 5.7% growth. The CASA ratio in NT$ book is quite— doing quite well.
That further increased to 61.6% of the total NT deposits, while the foreign currency is on the contrary slightly down to 37%. That mainly reflect a higher rate environment of USD. But in the meantime, is that the utilization in the bank also improved. As you can see, the lower right-hand side, the bond investment and also loans accounts for over 75% of the foreign deposit. And in page 32, as a result, we can see the margins enhancement year-over-year. In 2023, it was up by nine basis points, okay? On back of what we just report, the loan growth and also foreign currencies utilization. While quarter-over-quarter basis, it came down largely also due to the foreign currency deposit.
But if we look at the NIM, including the swap revenue, actually the NIM still expands on a quarter-over-quarter basis, and also on a full year basis, also up by 18 basis points. Okay, in page 33, we can see the asset quality remain outperform the market average on back of the margins improvement. Credit card business, page 34. The active card and also the card spending both shows outperformance compared to market average. While the monthly per card spending is slightly down by 2%-3%, that mainly reflect the significant growth active cards number of over 60%. While the absolute level, we can see still remain at a decent level.
In page 35, the fee business that growth on nearly 40% year-over-year mainly comes from the wealth management growth of 30%, and a meaningful growth from the credit card fees. In wealth management business, you can see across business lines deliver growth, and most significantly is the bancassurance revenue, which accounts for over half of the wealth management fees. In page 36, the overseas branches contribution in revenue we can see the growth is quite meaningful at over 66%, while the net profit also grow by over 50%. And that, as a result, contribute 24.5% of Taipei Fubon Bank's total net profit. Next section regarding Fubon Insurance.
In page 38, the business grew 7.7%. And the performance, excluding the losses from COVID-related policy, actually is quite strong. If we look at the combined ratio, it's further enhanced down to 89.4%. And the underwriting profit actually will grow by over 40%, both from the personal line and also the commercial line. And the COVID policies actually give us a lesson to learn. And what we have been focused on post this impact is more careful in the business selection, and we have overall review and risk control and just digitalization transformation. In the securities business, we have a very strong market in Taiwan's Taiex performance.
We also see the daily turnover further enhance year-over-year and even year-to-date first two months this year, up to over TWD 400 billion daily turnover. That help us to see the earning strength. And upon the merger between Fubon and Jih Sun, that give us a bigger platform that will help us to explore a further business potential going forward. In page 42, regarding Fubon Bank Hong Kong. The deposit growth of 11% and loans at 3%, that reflects that we take a strategy of liquidity management more actively under this rate hike environment. And the net profit growth of over 40% in the bank, that mainly reflect the margin expansion of 30 basis points.
Okay, while its asset quality remains stable, as we can see the NPL and coverage ratio here. And the last page here is the Fubon Bank China. The loan balance grow quite quite decently at over 20%. That mainly reflect the increase in its retail business. While its net profit was down mainly comes from two reasons. One is the NIM contraction on back of rate cut in RMB and also increase its USD's deposit cost. And the second factor is the provision expense mainly on back of the acquisition of the mortgage assets and also the rise of the provisioning ratio regulatory requirement is the key reason. And overall speaking, its asset quality remain at a stable level.
As you can see, the NPL ratio flat and an increase in its coverage ratio. This is the end of the briefing. Next, we would like to open for a Q&A that's hosted by the President of Fubon Financial Holding, Mr. Jerry Harn. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Ms. Wang. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask the question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad, and you will enter the queue. After you are announced, please ask your question. And if you would like to cancel your question, you may press *2 . Thank you. Now, please press *1 on your keypad if you would like to ask the question. Thank you. As a reminder, please press *1 on your keypad if you would like to ask the question. Thank you. Now, we'll have the first question from Jemmy Huang from J.P. Morgan. Go ahead, please.
Yeah. Hi, thanks for the presentation. Two questions from me. First one is on Taipei Fubon Bank. We see the OpEx growth was over 20% last year, even higher than the revenue growth. Understand, there was some one-off issues. So how should we look at either the cost income ratio or OpEx growth in 2024? For Fubon Life, could you provide some color in terms of the VNB in 2023? How much was contributed by the participating policies? And, if we look at your CSM internally, the contribution from the participating products, is that quite similar to the contribution to VNB? Thanks.
Okay. Cost income ratios. Yeah, on the cost income ratio, first question is on the OpEx for 2000-
For 2023.
Yes, there's some, many, many from two factors. One is the merger with Jih Sun Bank, that will have a one-time increase, especially on the staff expenses from the merger. Another factor is the launch of the co-brand card with Costco. That's another big factor to cause the increase of the OpEx. And we will not foresee these two factors to increase further again in this year because the merger is completed. So the system merger factor won't happen again in 2004 significantly. The other one is on the Costco card expenses. That part, depending on the in-store consumption of the credit card, that portion will be the major part of the OpEx for the credit card business.
For the cost-income ratio, last year is slightly over 50%. But for this year, I think without this one-time factor and the increase of the revenue, we foresee the cost-income ratio will come down less than 50%. Participation product, VNB contribution.
Roughly.
The contribution of the participating product to VNB is around 20% last year.
Thanks. But, is there any rough guidance on the contribution to CSM?
CSM, it should be the similar percentage. We don't have the number right now. Could we provide you later?
Yeah, sure. No problem. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you, Jamie. If you would like to ask the question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad. Thank you.
Okay. Any more question?
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. If you would like to ask the question, please press *1 on your keypad. Thank you.
Okay. If we don't have any more questions, then we'll keep the meeting short for the day.
We'll get back to Jamie on the participating product CSM contribution later.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. Then we'll call the day off for now. Thank you very much for your participation. If you do have any question that you would like to ask after this conference call, please feel free to call us directly. Thank you.