The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said members had agreed to allow Taiwanese insurance companies to acquire real estate properties in China for use as their own office space.
The financial regulator said it would soon release the measure for public comment before making it policy.
The approval came before today’s meeting between FSC Chairman Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) and executives of domestic insurers, who have long been pressing for cross-strait investment liberalization to better utilize funds and tap into the Chinese market.
Under the planned deregulation, insurers intent on setting up branch offices or who own a 50 percent stake in a Chinese peer may purchase real estate properties with up to 10 percent of their net worth, FSC Vice Chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) told a media briefing yesterday.
“The property concerned must be for use by the company making the purchase, meaning they cannot be leased or used for investment purposes,” Wu said.
Insurers must file operation plans before making the purchase and the property concerned must measure more than 50 percent of the total area of the building concerned, said Joanne Tseng (曾玉瓊), deputy director-general of the commission’s insurance bureau.
Currently, 18 domestic insurance firms have subsidiaries, branches or representative offices in China, Tseng said.
The FSC also revised regulations regarding financial firms’ management that ban company chairpersons from concurrently serving as chief executive officers.
Firms with a chairperson also working as president should make adjustments within a year, while companies with dual mangers should change within six months.
Jean Chiu (邱淑貞), deputy director-general of the commission’s banking bureau, said the change is intended to separate ownerships of financial firms from other operations to try to ensure more professional stewardship.
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