Cardif Assurance Vie, an insurance arm of BNP Paribas, yesterday restated its commitment to the local market by announcing a new Chinese name to strengthen the group's image in Asia.
Previously known as "佳迪福人壽" or "Chia Di Fu Life Insurance" in Mandarin, with the corporate title transliterated from "Cardif," the French life insurer has been renamed "法國巴黎人壽" by taking the word "Paris" to be consistent with the group's Chinese translation. Its English name remains unchanged.
"In Mandarin-speaking communities, our group's subsidiaries have different Chinese names, which causes confusion. As BNP Paribas will take a more robust approach to developing the Asian market, we believe it's essential to unify Chinese titles for the purposes of image building," said Elsa Lee (李崇言), general manager of Cardif Assurance Vie's Taiwan branch, on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday.
In 2005, Cardif relocated its Asian headquarters from Japan to Hong Kong. Eyeing the potential market in China, the insurer is set to announce its joint venture partners in Shanghai this year, Lee said.
As Cardif targets bancassurance worldwide, its partners across the Taiwan Strait will be major banks which own an extensive network of channels, she said.
In Taiwan, Cardif has worked with more than 30 banks, or 2,000 branches, to sell its insurance policies. Its total premiums last year reached NT$25 billion (US$757 million), ranking it eighth among the nation's life insurers, its data showed.
ING Antai (ING安泰人壽), which has built a fresh image by promoting annual marathon races, also expressed confidence in expanding its presence here.
It aims to recruit 2,000 agents to join its current team of 9,000, to tap into the underdeveloped pension market, said John Wylie, chief executive officer of the nation's fifth-largest life insurer.
ING Antai last year reported total premiums of NT$116.8 billion, up 7.5 percent from a year ago. Its first-year premiums last year reached NT$20 billion, a whopping 30 percent increase year-on-year, he said. The insurer expects to post a similar growth rate in revenues this year.
The average Taiwanese insurance payout is only NT$800,000, 6.6 percent of the Japanese average of NT$12 million, the firm's figures showed.
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