Insurance companies are poised to experience further premium growth and to penetrate insurance markets in China, Moody's Investors Service said in its first report on the nation's insurance industry.
The insurance industry has experienced severe difficulties in recent years due to the effects of deregulation, the impact of the low interest-rate environment on some guaranteed investment products and a succession of natural catastrophes in the late 1990s.
More recently, reinsurance capacity, which is much relied on by insurers, has shrunk.
"Taken together, these forces have inflicted significant losses on Taiwan insurers, falling particularly hard on the industry's weaker players," said Donovan North, Moody's Taiwan insurance analyst and author of the report.
The Department of Insurance under the Ministry of Finance has responded to these challenges by introducing a number of new regulations that are designed to stabilize the market.
Among these reforms are a reduction in the Special Claims Reserve requirement, a regulation governing the amount of reserves insurers must keep on hand, and the introduction of a tariff-based system into the non-life insurance industry with a view to eventual liberalization.
New legislation allowing banks, securities houses and insurance companies to combine into financial holding companies could lead to greater opportunities for cross-selling, Moody's said, adding that this will also help open up a new distribution channel via banks.
The report noted that China appears to hold a great deal of potential for foreign insurers, and Taiwan players are pitching themselves into this market.
In August last year, the government allowed local insurers that already had a representative office in China to set up branches there.
"China represents a significant opportunity for Taiwan insurers to expand their operations beyond their narrow geographic base in Taiwan," North said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”