The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday gave an overview of upcoming changes aimed at bolstering corporate governance through tougher regulation of major stakeholders of financial institutions.
The commission is set to tighten restrictions, barring responsible persons at financial institutions from holding concurrent key positions at other financial firms.
“The change addresses potential conflicts of interest when key people at financial companies are knowledgeable about and actively involved in the management of competitors in the industry,” FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) told a news conference in Taipei.
To ensure fair competition and to foster innovation in the financial sector, restrictions on concurrent engagements would be extended to responsible people at banks and financial holding companies, as well as interested parties, such as spouses and second-degree relatives.
For instance, Sylvia Peng (彭雪芬), spouse of Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮), would be barred from concurrently serving as a director on the board of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) on behalf of a family-owned investment holding company, the commission said.
To improve oversight, financial companies that own assets worth NT$1 trillion (US$33.44 billion) and have a five-member board of directors would be required to give at least three seats on the board to industry experts, Koo said, adding that for every three seats added to the board of directors, one must be allocated to an industry expert, up from one in every four.
If a board of directors has more than 13 seats, at least five must be occupied by industry experts, to ensure diversity among directors and supervisors, Koo said.
The change would make it more difficult for companies to swap out their board appointees at investee companies, Koo said, adding that having a highly professional board of directors that is not subject to frequent shuffles would go a long way toward improving governance and compliance.
However, the change would not be imposed on state-run financial companies, as they are under additional supervision by the legislature and the government, the commission said.
Changes to the rules on concurrent engagements are expected to come into force by July 1 next year, it said.
Meanwhile, the commission said it would also tighten controls on proxy solicitation following a series of high-profile proxy fights over the past year.
Proxy solicitors must be a shareholder in the target company for at least one year and hold a stake of more than 0.005 percent of shares in circulation, up from a previous requirement of 0.002 percent, Koo said, adding that the change would take effect on Jan. 1 next year.
“The use of proxy solicitation has harmed governance as it allows major shareholders to yield influence that is disproportionate to their ownership of a company,” Koo said.
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RECORD LOW: Global firms’ increased inventories, tariff disputes not yet impacting Taiwan and new graduates not yet entering the market contributed to the decrease Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month dropped to 3.3 percent, the lowest for the month in 25 years, as strong exports and resilient domestic demand boosted hiring across various sectors, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate eased to 3.34 percent, the best performance in 24 years, suggesting a stable labor market, although a mild increase is expected with the graduation season from this month through August, the statistics agency said. “Potential shocks from tariff disputes between the US and China have yet to affect Taiwan’s job market,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS