FSC pushes for stalled merger

Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正) yesterday urged the legislature to facilitate the proposed integration of four local equities markets into one financial holding company through share swaps.

"The nation's financial reform cannot wait," Hu told reporters after giving a speech at a financial symposium organized by the cross-industry financial service association, Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (金融總會).

The planned merger of Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TSE), Taiwan Futures Exchange Corp, GRETAI Securities Market and Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp is expected to cut operational costs, accelerate the privatization of equities markets and allow stock investors to share earnings, Hu said.

The move will also help beef up the nation's financial competitiveness and incorporate with the international markets, he said.

"A consensus has been reached within the Cabinet to accelerate the merger [by the end of next year at the earliest]," Hu said, adding that his commission was communicating with the legislature about the merger.

The commission proposed the plan to integrate stock exchanges early last year after South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong adopted similar measures to regulate their respective equities markets.

On Oct. 3, Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑), director-general of the commission's Securities and Futures Bureau, said the Cabinet proposed establishing a "Taiwan Securities Exchange Financial Holding Corp" (台灣交易所控股公司) sometime next year, which would require amending Article 128 and Article 177 of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法).

The Cabinet has submitted the amendments to the Legislative Yuan for approval.

Hu said the legislature was reviewing a revision to Article 128, which restricts shareholding in TSE by local securities firms through a membership system.

Should the article be scrapped, more TSE shares would be released to the public, transforming the members-owned bourse into a corporation.

As the second step, the share-swap deal would be completed to establish a single financial holding company, which could go public locally or on overseas markets in the US, Hong Kong or China in three years, Hu said.

However, concerns raised by legislators over the revision stalled the merger.

On Wednesday, legislators Christina Liu (劉憶如) from the People First Party and Alex Fai (費鴻泰) from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) warned that some conglomerates would try to secure large stakes to monopolize the new financial holding company before its public listing.

Liu said regulations governing the company's listing should be included in the revision, while Fai questioned the timing of such a merger at a time when electoral campaigns are in high gear.

"Such a decision should be left to the next legislature," Fai told the legislature's Finance Committee at the time.

In response to Fai's concern, Hu yesterday proposed the insertion of a "sunrise" clause to create a six-month grace period before the revised law takes effect, easing any concerns of the revision's effect on the political scene.

Hu also lauded the local stock market's competitiveness, as its market capitalization climbed from NT$1.5 trillion (US$46.5 billion) in 2005 to NT$2.5 trillion this year. The number of listed companies stayed at around 700.

Stakes in the new financial holding company would be capped for foreign investors, TSE spokesman Su Soong-chin (蘇松欽) said.