The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday issued licenses to 14 insurance companies to run offshore units, while commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said the licenses would help the nation move closer to transforming into an asset management hub.
Tseng said the licenses are a follow-up to efforts to benefit from increased asset-management business after the nation allowed securities companies to conduct offshore business last year.
Among the insurers that secured the licenses were 12 life insurers and two general insurers, including Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽), Nanshan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽) and Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險), the commission said.
Tseng cited an estimate by foreign banks as saying that the value of assets held by ethnic Chinese in overseas markets surpasses US$200 billion, indicating that insurers in the region have plenty of business opportunities.
Tseng said Hong Kong has enjoyed booming business through its offshore operations, with clients of Hong Kong insurers accounting for more than 25 percent of the total premium revenue over the past year.
He said that revenue from offshore operations in Hong Kong has been growing by more than 50 percent per year, indicating that Taiwan’s insurance sector should have a chance to gain business in the region.
Tseng said that the 14 companies should introduce attractive insurance products in asset management to tap the regional market.
The commission issued 17 licenses to local securities companies to set up offshore securities units last year.
Tseng said that the commission expects those security companies to post NT$500 million (US$15.86 million) in profit from their offshore operations this year.
The 62 offshore banking units of Taiwanese banks posted more than NT$85.3 billion in profit last year, up 53 percent from a year earlier, to become one of the growth engines for the local banking sector, Tseng said.
As of the end of last year, total assets of the offshore banking units topped NT$5 trillion, the commission 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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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