American International Assurance Co (AIA) plans to hire more sales agents to deepen its presence in Taiwan this year, AIA Taiwan branch chief executive officer Tan Kar-kor (陳家虎) said yesterday.
The hiring plan came after AIA Taiwan on April 30 raised its working capital by NT$530 million (US$27.89 million) to NT$2.62 billion, in line with its long-term commitment to the local market.
Tan declined to give exact numbers, but said that the company currently employs 650 sales agents and 250 telemarketers.
In addition, AIA Taiwan plans to set up offices in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Greater Tainan so that it can better serve customers in those areas, Tan said.
The Hong Kong-based insurer currently has offices in Taipei, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung.
AIA Taiwan saw its first-year premiums rise 14.8 percent for the first three months of this year from the same period last year, bucking a 22.2 percent decline for the sector, Tan said.
He attributed the showing to the insurer’s sales of health insurance policies, which offer coverage for cancer, adding that an improving economic outlook this year is favorable for sales of both protection and investment-linked insurance policies.
The local life insurance industry saw total premiums contract 6.9 percent during the January-to-March period to NT$581.48 billion compared with a year earlier, the Life Insurance Association of the Republic of China (壽險公會) said.
Overall, protection policy premiums fell 13.4 percent to NT$501.78 billion last quarter, while sales of investment-linked products jumped 76.4 percent from a year earlier, the association’s data showed.
Two downward adjustments in assumed interest rates last year boosted sales of protection insurance policies, the association said, adding that the high comparison base accounted for the lackluster performance this year.
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),
Taiwan’s property transactions in the first half of this year fell 26.4 percent year-on-year to about 130,000 units, as credit controls and mortgage restrictions dampened demand, data from the Ministry of the Interior showed yesterday. Keelung saw the steepest decline, with transactions plummeting 45.6 percent to just 2,041 units — the lowest since the ministry began its survey in 2006. In contrast, Miaoli County was the only region to experience year-on-year growth, with transactions rising 2.4 percent to 3,229 units. Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) attributed the increase in deals in Miaoli, particularly Jhunan (竹南) and Toufen (頭份) townships, to spillover demand
RSS