Domestic institutions have for the most part taken steps to comply with Europe’s stringent data and privacy rules — the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — that took effect on Friday, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said the same day.
Most domestic financial firms are expected to be able to comply with GDPR as they have made the required preparations, Koo told reporters on the sidelines of a corporate governance event in Taipei.
However, some Taiwanese lenders would have to do more than their peers, Koo said, noting that the six state-run banks that have branches in Europe would have to appoint data protection officers who report to chief privacy officers and commit additional resources toward information and information transmission security.
Photo: CNA
State-run banks subject to the requirement are the Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行), Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合庫銀行), Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行), First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) and Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行).
Foreign banks with operations in Taiwan should easily be able to adjust to GDPR as they follow protocols set by their head offices, while domestic banks that do not have branches in Europe are still subject to GDPR if their business involve collecting personal data from residents in Europe, Koo said.
The GDPR helps clarify individuals’ rights to the personal data collected by companies around the world for targeted advertising and other purposes. It applies to all users in the EU, regardless of where the companies collecting, analyzing and using their data are located.
Violators could face fines of up to 20 million euros (US$24 million) or 4 percent of their annual global revenue, whichever is greater.
The National Development Council said the finance, e-commerce, airlines and transport industries are expected to see the greatest impact from the new rule.
The council has outlined plans to setup a cross-departmental platform to help Taiwan’s businesses cope with the new rule, Koo said.
It is hoped that financial companies would step up and share their experience with other industries in Taiwan, he said.
Koo also announced that next year financial institutions and listed companies would be required to staff corporate governance positions to help provide their board of directors with information and assistance.
Under the commission’s plans, financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies as well as listed firms with paid-in capital of NT$10 billion (US$333.95 million) or more are required to establish corporate governance posts as of next year.
About 120 companies initially will be subject to the requirement, but the requirement would be expanded to securities brokerages, futures houses and listed firms with paid-in capital of NT$2 billion in the second phase, the commission said.
Additional reporting by AP and staff writer
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
A new worry has been rippling across the stock market lately: Entire businesses, not just their employees, might be thrown out of work. While most economists say fears of an artificial intelligence (AI) job apocalypse are overblown, seismic shifts have happened in the past after big tech breakthroughs. The IT revolution of the 1990s led to a surge in productivity that sped up the US economy for several years. It also rendered companies or even industries largely redundant — from travel agents and stockbrokers to classified advertising and newspapers, or video rental stores. Economists expect AI would deliver higher productivity,
RSS