Insurance authorities said yesterday that they will made a final decision on whether to raise the ceiling on domestic insurers' overseas investments within the next three months.
"The decision is expected to be made by the end of June after a review by the Cabinet, and the proposal will be directed to the Legislative Yuan for review by the end of this year," Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧), the newly appointed director-general of the Insurance Bureau, said yesterday at a press conference.
Under the Insurance Law (保險法), local insurers can only appropriate a maximum of 35 percent of their working capital to invest in foreign markets.
Chen Wei-lung (陳惟龍), the bureau's deputy director general, said the bureau is discussing two proposals prepared by the Life Insurance Association of the ROC (人壽保險公會).
"The association suggested the government either raise the overseas investment ceiling from 35 percent to 50 percent, or not to include the proportion of the insurers' overseas hedge investment into the 35 percent limit," Chen said.
On Tuesday, the commission's vice chairman Lu Daung-yen (呂東英) said the commission and the central bank had reached a consensus on easing the limits on overseas investments, but he declined to give a timetable for the policy change.
According to the bureau's statistics, local insurers placed an average of 27.75 percent of their working capital in overseas investments as of the end of last year, with more than 80 percent of the capital put in hedge investments, 6 percent in the local bourse and the rest on other investment options, including real estate, bonds and exchequer bills.
Some life insurers, including Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (
Domestic insurers' working capital has surpassed NT$5 trillion (US$160 billion), and they will be able to divert, at most, NT$750 billion overseas, on top of the original amount of money, after the ratio is raised by 15 percentage points to 50 percent.
Nevertheless, Huang said the authorities are not worried about capital outflow or a negative impact on the domestic capital market.
He said it is not easy for insurers to liquidate their property investments and divert the money abroad in the short term. The US$82 billion worth of foreign capital inflow that goes mainly to the local bourse could make up for the amount of capital they may withdraw, he said.
Earlier yesterday, Huang formally replaced Mark Wei (魏寶生) as the bureau's director-general at a hand-over ceremony.
Wei said he decided to leave for "personal career plans," although he declined to say what he will do next. There has been intense speculation that he may join a foreign insurance company here.
Huang, 47, holds a doctoral degree in public administration from the University of Southern California. He was the Financial Supervisory Commission's first secretary-general after the Cabinet-level agency was established last July. Prior to that post Huang had worked at the Ministry of Finance's financial bureau.
Huang yesterday pledged to amend the Insurance Law (保險法), implement grading management of insurance products starting in July and help insurers set up new businesses for the new labor pension system.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last