Insurance changes approved
The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a law change that allows insurers to invest more of their assets overseas.
According to the amended Insurance Law, domestic insurers will be able to invest as much as 35 percent of their assets abroad, up from 20 percent now.
That may help insurers at a time when their profits have been declining in a saturated domestic market and suffered from falling stock returns in the nation. The TAIEX slumped 20 percent last year.
Shipper seeks progress on links
A shipping operator yesterday urged the government to speed up the opening of direct links to improve the nation's economy.
Lin Shing-san (林省三), vice chairman of Evergreen Group (長榮集團), said in the absence of direct cross-strait links, shipping has to travel via a third destination, incurring extra time and costs, which he added is not economically efficient.
Lin made the remarks before attending a closed-door meeting with Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) yesterday morning. Evergreen's Lin complained about the declining number of Taiwan-registered ships, saying that many ships are now registered in other countries to facilitate shipping to China.
Fuh-Hwa plans merger
Fuh-Hwa Financial Holdings Co (復華金控) may announce a merger with an unlisted financial company in the first three months of this year, a local newspaper said, citing company chairman Chang Chang-pang (張昌邦).
Its lending arm, Fuh-Hwa Bank (復華銀行), has small operations that would benefit from expansion, the report said. Fuh-Hwa is also planning to merge its securities unit with that of an unidentified rival, according to the report.
Fuh-Hwa Financial in August raised its annual profit forecast by
5.2 percent after the Taiwanese brokerage took over Asia Pacific Bank (泛亞銀行) through a share swap.
Taiwan last year allowed the creation of holding companies for banks, securities companies, insurers and money managers because it wants lenders to combine into bigger entities to compete with foreign rivals as the financial industry is deregulated.
Companies eye rail stakes
ING Group NV, Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) will buy stakes in the state-owned Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵), a local newspaper said, citing ING Aetna Life Insurance vice president Chiang Kuo-liang (蔣國樑).
ING plans to buy a NT$1.5 billion (US$43 million) stake in the company, which may offer a return on investment as high as 8 percent, the report quoted Chiang as saying.
Fubon Financial, Taiwan's No. 2 financial group, plans to buy a NT$1 billion stake, while Taiwan Life will invest NT$500 million, the report said.
Foreign reserves rise
Taiwan's foreign currency reserves rose to US$161.6 billion last year, the world's third-largest after that of Japan and China, the central bank said yesterday.
By the end of last month, the nation's foreign reserves stood at US$161.6 billion, up US$2.5 billion from November and up US$39.4 billion from 2001, the Central Bank of China said in a statement.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to lose ground against its US counterpart in line with weak regional currencies, dropping NT$0.015 to close at NT$34.806 on the Taipei foreign-exchange market.
Turnover was US$316 million, compared with the previous day's US$416 million.
RSS