Taiwanese lenders’ recent love affair with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a natural one. The country’s manufacturers gradually migrated their factories and production base to Southeast Asia to defray rising labour costs in China, and the bankers were quick to follow their key clients.

“We go where they are heading,” said Ibing Moor, senior vice-president and head of transactional banking product department at Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (Fubon).

With a large combined population and burgeoning consumer class, the resource-rich (but generally infrastructure poor) ASEAN bloc presents promising potential.