The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) would soon approve three financial technology (fintech) sandbox experiments involving insurance sales, blockchain technology and fund management, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
The commission would allow ezTravel Co (易遊網) to sell travel insurance policies provided by Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) on its Web site, exempting it from regulations on selling insurance, Koo said.
People can only purchase policies online from insurers’ Web sites, but in the experiment, they would be able to choose policies and pay the premiums directly to EzTravel, Koo said.
However, EzTravel cannot spend the premiums freely and must deposit them in a dedicated bank account and transfer them to Cathay Life on a regular basis, he said.
EzTravel would not be allowed to sell other kinds of insurance, he added.
If the experiment makes it more convenient for people to purchase travel insurance online, the commission would amend regulations to allow more institutions to cooperate with insurers, Koo said.
Second, the FSC would allow Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) and Taishin International Bank (台新銀行) to use blockchain technology in their domestic fund transfer and payment services, and to address information flows, Koo said.
As domestic fund transfer and payment services are already fast and convenient, they are not expected to be any faster in the experiment, but the banks could check if the blockchain technology is viable, Department of Planning Director-General Lin Chih-chi (林志吉) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Only clients of the two banks can take part in the experiment, Lin said.
If the technology is proven to be reliable, the commission might allow the banks to adopt the technology in their remittance service, he said.
Remittances, which usually take a few days if conducted through banks, are expected to be faster with the help of blockchain technology, Lin added.
Third, the commission said it would allow How-Investech Inc (好好投資科技), a financial technology company, to partner with Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀) to provide new fund management services, Koo said.
Customers who have purchased fund products offered by the bank would be able to exchange their products with those of other customers without paying redemption fees, Koo said, adding that the company would also use blockchain technology in the experiment.
The commission has approved the applications for the experiments and would make an official announcement soon, including the number of participants and the amount of exposure, Koo said.
POOR INTERNAL CONTROLS: Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa said the company is expected to get back on track while its chairman is suspended The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday fined Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) NT$27.6 million (US$939,415) for a reckless investment that endangered its solvency, and suspended its chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進) for poor supervision. The penalty is the second-highest in a single case after Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) was fined NT$30 million in September last year and its chairman Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗) suspended for two years, the commission said. In three rounds of special and regular examinations conducted since last year, the commission found that Shin Kong Life had given too much power to an asset and liability management committee
Sony Corp has cut its estimated Play Station 5 (PS5) production for this fiscal year by 4 million units, down to about 11 million, following production issues with its custom-designed system-on-chip (SOC) for the new console, people familiar with the matter said. The Tokyo-based electronics giant in July boosted orders with suppliers in anticipation of heightened demand for gaming in the holiday season and beyond, as people spend more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the company has come up against manufacturing issues, such as production yields as low as 50 percent for its SOC, which have cut into
HEAVY INVESTMENT: Moody’s affirmed the firm’s ‘Aa3’ rating with a ‘stable’ outlook due to its leading position in the industry and ability to match customer requirements Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue this year is expected to increase about 21 percent to NT$1.29 trillion (US$44.01 billion) from NT$1.07 trillion last year, driven by strong demand for advanced 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer chips mainly used in smartphones and high-performance computing devices, a Moody’s Investors Service report on Wednesday said. TSMC’s rate of revenue growth next year is to increase to 7.5 percent, the ratings agency said. The company, which supplies 5-nanometer chips for Apple Inc’s new iPad series, has introduced the advanced chips ahead of its competitors and gained a significant share of the market for the foundry industry’s
O2O BICYCLE SHOW: The Taiwan Bicycle Show next year is to be online to offline, with forums, audio-visual conferences and livestreaming of the offline events Local bicycle makers expect demand to continue outpacing supply due to orders triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some companies seeing orders back up through next year. “Next year is all full in terms of orders. Our lead time on components is one year,” Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械) chairwoman Bonnie Tu (杜綉珍) told a news conference in Taipei organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to announce next year’s Taipei Cycle Show. The pandemic has reduced bicycle supplies and increased demand around the world, Robert Wu (吳盈進), chairman of KMC (Kuei Meng) International Inc (桂盟國際), one of the world’s
RSS