The Hong Kong subsidiary of troubled insurance titan AIG said yesterday that more than 2,000 policies had been terminated by customers who feared a collapse.
In a bid to lure back their customers, American International Assurance (AIA) said it would waive re-admission charges and a health declaration requirement for those who decided to revive their life insurance policies with them.
“We hope that our customers are convinced that our business remains sound and profitable,” Derek Yung (容佳明), senior vice president and general manager of AIA for Hong Kong and Macau, told a press conference yesterday.
“If the customers decide to come back to us in the coming two weeks, we will waive the requirement for them to provide proof of their health conditions,” he said, adding that the measure was “unprecedented in Hong Kong.”
The policies were terminated as panic spread after the US Federal Reserve handed its parent company AIG an unprecedented US$85 billion rescue loan on Tuesday in an attempt to avoid a global economic shock.
Yung said the number of policy cancelations was small, considering that they had written a total of 2.2 million policies for their 1.3 million customers.
The subsidiary also denied reports that there were plans to sell their business and maintained they were financially separate from AIG.
“Even though AIA Hong Kong is a subsidiary of AIG, it keeps a separate and sound book of its own. AIA is well-capitalized and will continue to operate as normal to meet customer needs,” Yung said.
“From the information we have got at this stage, we will not be selling our business,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Singapore chief of American International Assurance Co (AIA) resigned yesterday as surrendered policies mounted with hundreds of customers unconvinced of the insurer’s soundness.
Mark O’Dell — who has been trying to persuade policyholders that AIA, a unit of the troubled American International Group (AIG) Inc, could meet its obligations — was said to be joining a rival firm and a new general manager would start today.
The company said O’Dell’s decision was not related to the three days of customers withstanding long lines and sweltering heat to enter its service center. By the end of the day yesterday, those waiting were given numbers and told to return today.
“Even with the AIG bailout by the US government, everything is still uncertain,” said Karen Tan, a 42-year-old woman with no intention of keeping her policies.
The insurer was said to be studying the option of allowing customers who terminated their policies to reinstate them without having to pay a penalty.
Reassuring statements from AIA and the Monetary Authority of Singapore that the insurer could meet its obligations were on prominent display.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS