Legislature may soon approve board law

The Legislative Yuan may give the green light to the Cabinet-proposed Financial Supervisory Board Organization Law (金融監督委員會組織法) before the outgoing lawmaking body goes into recess on Jan. 18.

"Disagreements between the ruling and opposition parties have been narrowed to disputes over how to nominate the nine-member board," said KMT legislator Liu Kuang-hua (劉光華), who chaired yesterday's inter-party negotiations in the legislature.

The board is expected to have supervisory powers over the banking, insurance and securities sectors. The Ministry of Finance, central bank and the Central Deposit Insurance Corporation have traditionally overseen the banking, insurance and securities sectors.

Liu said that the DPP preferred granting the Cabinet the right to appoint the entire nine-member board without the consent of the legislature, while the opposition argued that major parties should be represented and board members' legal, economic and financial expertise should also be taken into consideration.

According to the Cabinet's proposal, the independent supervisory board would be comprised of a politically appointed chairman, two vice chairmen, the finance minister and central bank governor who will double as board members. Four financial experts would also be appointed. All members would be nominated by the premier and approved by the president.

The opposition, however, suggests that nomination of the four experts should be made by the nation's major political parties such as the KMT, DPP, People First Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union.

The DPP's legislative whip, Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), disagreed with the opposition's proposal.

"Such a move would create political interference, disturbing the board's independence," Tsai said.

Lin Cho-shui (林濁水), another DPP lawmaker, said that the board "should enjoy relative independence instead of absolute independence," indicating that he favored monitoring of the board by the legislature.