An official with Taiwan’s top financial regulator on Saturday dismissed market speculation that more foreign life insurance companies will pull out of Taiwan, after some of their branches said publicly they were not for sale.
“According to our initial understanding, there will be no walkout as speculated,” said Wu Chung-chuan (吳崇權), deputy director-general of the Financial Supervisory Commission’s Insurance Bureau.
“Some Taiwanese branches of foreign insurance companies in Taiwan told us voluntarily that there are no plans for their sale,” he told reporters in a telephone interview, but he declined to identify the companies’ names.
Wu also dismissed a media report that the bureau would arrange a number of meetings with executives of these Taiwanese branches next week to ask the companies to stay in the country.
The most recent round of speculation has focused on New York Life Insurance Taiwan Corp as the next branch of a foreign life insurer to be sold, but New York Life Insurance Taiwan dismissed the speculation in a statement released on Friday.
“Since its establishment 17 years ago, New York Life Insurance Taiwan has been receiving the support of its parent company, New York Life Insurance Co,” Danny Lam (林順財), the chief executive officer of the life insurer, said in the statement.
Lam said New York Life Insurance Taiwan is financially stable and will intensify its efforts to expand its market share in Taiwan.
Prudential Life Insurance Company of Taiwan, a unit of US-based Prudential Financial Inc, also denied that it would be sold, reports said on Saturday.
A number of foreign insurers, including ING Antai Life Insurance Co, have withdrawn from Taiwan’s market in the past two years.
Many were saddled with guaranteed-return policies sold when interest rates were higher and have struggled in Taiwan’s low interest rate spread environment. New accounting rules requiring insurers to increase their reserve funds have also been blamed for the exodus.
Other foreign life insurers that have left Taiwan over the past 18 months include UK-based Prudential PLC, Aegon NV of the Netherlands and US-based MetLife Inc, which announced the sale of its Taiwan business to Waterland Financial Holdings Co (國票金控) on April 19.
American International Group Inc sold Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) late last year to Hong Kong-based investment companies Primus Financial Holdings Ltd (博智金控) and China Strategic Holdings Ltd (中策集團), but the sale has yet to receive regulatory approval.
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