Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), a local subsidiary of American International Group Inc (AIG), yesterday denied reports by the Chinese-language media that “hundreds” of policyholders had decided to terminate their insurance contracts because of worries about its troubled US parent company.
Most policyholders who called up the life insurer in the past few days have found their worries to be unfounded, Nan Shan vice president April Pan (潘玲嬌) said yesterday by telephone.
“We believe the number of panicking policyholders will dwindle after they have been thoroughly briefed by us and understand that the company’s operations are unaffected by the US company,” she said.
Pan refused to disclose the exact number of policyholders who had terminated their policies.
“We’re still operating normally,” she reiterated yesterday, adding that the rights of the firm’s 3.93 million policyholders were well protected.
Having operated in Taiwan for 45 years, Nan Shan is committed to the local market and plans to improve its services here, the insurer said in a statement released yesterday.
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday also expressed a positive view on the viability of Nan Shan.
The US Federal Reserve’s US$85 billion rescue loan will enable AIG to honor its liabilities, the commission said in a statement.
The impact of the US insurance giant’s troubles on its local subsidiaries, including AIG Investment Corp (友邦投顧) and AIG Securities Investment & Trust Co (友邦投信), appeared to be limited yesterday.
AIG Credit Card (友邦國際信用卡) said it had only received a few phone calls from nervous cardholders, who are also Nan Shan policyholders, inquiring about their rights to insurance policies, said Angel Cheng (鄭宇秀), AIG Credit Card’s assistant vice president.
Cheng rejected media speculation that AIG planned to sell off its local credit card division as a result of its recent troubles.
She said the credit-card firm was put up for sale in May after more than 10 financial institutions expressed an interest in it.
“Ideally, the company hopes to close the deal by the end of this year,” Cheng said, adding that less than 10 potential buyers had completed due diligence checks on the company and entered the final stage to negotiate a price.
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