Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) yesterday announced that its board of directors approved the takeover of a number of Allianz Taiwan Life Insurance Co (安聯人壽) traditional life policy clients at a cost of NT$1 in a move to improve long-term investment returns.
Nearly 80,000 traditional life policies held by 40,000 clients are to be brought under the fold of Taiwan Life on June 30, pending regulatory approval, Taiwan Life said.
“Following the takeover, Taiwan Life’s total assets will increase to NT$1.15 trillion [US$35.35 billion] and the additional policyholders would enjoy the full suite of financial services offered by [parent company] CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控),” company president president Steve Lin (林欽淼) said.
Taiwan Life is expected to book bargain purchase gains from the deal, but the specific amount needs to be determined by accountants, Lin said.
Lin said Taiwan Life is to furnish an additional NT$26.5 billion in cash reserves and NT$44.6 billion in assets to meet its obligations to the new policyholders.
“The additional traditional life polices are set with a declared interest rate of about 3.6 percent and Taiwan Life’s track record of consistent 4 percent investment returns would ensure our obligations to the new clients,” Lin said.
In related news, the Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday imposed fines of NT$1.2 million each on insurers Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) over allegations of non-competitive practices.
In a bid to boost sales, the companies had been cutting prices excessively, and the amount of bonuses and commission payments offered to salespeople had outstripped revenue and threatened the companies’ financial sustainability, the commission said.
The infractions were mostly concentrated in popular single-payment life insurance policies that saw a surge in sales during the first half of last year, it said.
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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