Financial institutions operating in Taiwan could find themselves liable for settlements totaling hundreds of millions of NT dollars as a result of the Financial Supervisory Commission's financial services law, presented in draft form yesterday.
The bill is the supreme statute for the nation's financial sector and integrates all of the nation's finance-related laws. It took the regulator three years to draft, with reference to similar legislation in the US, Japan and the UK.
Under the draft law, which will shortly be submitted to the Executive Yuan for review, the commission can require financial institutions to settle disputes out of court.
The regulation will apply in situations where there is insufficient evidence or when distances make the investigations difficult, as in international disputes, commission Secretary-General Austin Chan (
Based on US precedents, these settlements could be considerable, the official said. He cited the example of several mutual fund firms being required to pay a total of US$5 billion as a result of a single administrative probe.
Companies that settled out of court would not venture their reputations, Chan said. However, firms could not take this option if the commission had solid evidence of wrongdoing, he said.
Whereas the maximum fine that can be imposed on banks at present is NT$10 million (US$305,360), Kuo Tu-mu (郭土木), director-general of the commission's legal affairs department, said it was likely that financial institutions could be forced to pay much more to settle disputes in the future.
The draft law holds financial institutions liable without fault if they fail to notify their clients of all potential risks when selling financial products.
The bill also precludes those in charge of financial institutions, including board directors and supervisors, from holding similar positions in non-financial companies in which their financial institutions are investors.
This measure served to avoid conflict of interest that might hamper the performance of financial institutions, the regulator said.
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