The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday announced stimulus initiatives aimed at freeing capital and improving utilization to address a persisting slump in stock market turnover.
The commission said that individuals and companies may use beneficiary rights of trust services as collateral to obtain secured loans.
Such beneficiary rights issued by one financial firm may be used to apply for loans by another financial firm, the commission added.
“About NT$500 billion [US$15.3 billion] in fresh funding is expected to be injected into the market following the regulatory changes,” Banking Bureau Director-General Austin Chan (詹庭禎) said.
About one-third of clients using specialized pecuniary trusts are seeking loans with total assets managed by trust services amounting to about NT$3.2 trillion by the end of the second quarter, Chan said.
NT$2.25 trillion in underlying assets managed by pecuniary trust services that can be used as collateral for loans are allocated to offshore funds, followed by conventional foreign-issued bonds at NT$352.99 billion, according to the commission’s data.
“We are positive that a significant portion of funds obtained through such beneficiary rights-backed loans will flow into the local bourse,” Chan said.
In addition, about NT$130 billion in capital is expected to be released to boost daily market turnover, as the commission is considering easing laws governing stock market investments by local commercial banks.
According to the commission’s plan, commercial banks may invest up to 30 percent of their net worth in the local stock market, up from 25 percent. The amendments are expected to be completed no later than two from now, the commission said.
The commission said that the deregulation is designed to offer more flexibility in investment options and improved capital utilization for commercial banks.
A commission official, who declined to be named, said that the securities investment portfolio held by domestic banks is less than NT$300 billion, far below its mandated cap of NT$630 billion.
However, five or six local banks, including Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行), Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank (上海銀行) and Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行), are approaching their 25 percent investment ceiling, the official said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained