Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday said that he would fulfill his promise to uphold the principle of administrative neutrality and keep politics at “arm’s length.”
“In light of the opinions voiced, I will no longer attend any political events to prevent further disputes,” Koo told a news conference in Taipei.
The remarks came after he was criticized for attending a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) New Frontier Foundation meeting earlier this month.
Koo said that he attended the meeting to be briefed on a white paper by the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable (台灣金總) to learn about recommendations by businesses and that he is seeking further dialogue with key companies and financial technology (fintech) developers listed in the white paper.
Regarding concerns that his emphasis on improving corporate governance and measures to combat money laundering at the expense of neglecting the development of new opportunities for the financial sector, Koo said that financial companies must face higher standards than publicly traded companies in other industries.
Companies would not fear audits and checks if governance is built into their corporate culture, Koo said, when asked to comment on businesses urging him to ease regulatory control.
“If companies commit to meeting compliance standards, then there would be no issues about whether a rule is perceived as too tight or too loose,” Koo said, adding that he has seen much of the other side of the coin during his time as an attorney.
Koo said that a fundamental question on the role of the financial sector has emerged since his appointment as commission chairman a month ago.
“I am unsure whether the financial sector should be regarded as one of the nation’s strategic industries, or as an industry tasked with assisting and stimulating growth for other industries,” Koo said.
While the government has called on the financial sector to expand into other Asian markets in the past, fintech is the latest disruptive development challenging financial sector incumbents, Koo said, adding that he needs more time to consider this.
Meanwhile, the commission has outlined incentives rewarding insurers who invest in the government’s “five plus two” innovative industries, such as raising the number of new products they can apply to introduce to the market, in addition to expanding the number of investment vehicles they can be involved with, including investment funds.
The commission also granted incentives in the form of shorter approvals for new investment funds for three securities investment trust and consulting firms that have demonstrated their commitment to metrics, such as improving their investment research capabilities, employee education and overseas expansion.
Incentives were also granted to six foreign asset management firms operating offshore investment funds in Taiwan for their efforts in deepening their roots in Taiwan, with expedited fund approvals and eased product requirements.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by