The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday lowered assumed interest rates by up to 75 basis points on insurance policies to reflect lingering uncertainty over the sector’s outlook.
The downward adjustments, set to take effect on Jan. 1, mean life insurers will have to set aside more reserves and raise insurance policy costs for products with tenures ranging from three to six years, the commission said.
The regulator trimmed assumed interest rates by 25 basis points on all currency-based insurance policies with three-year tenures and the adjustment will widen to 75 basis points for policies with six-year tenures or longer, the commission said in a statement.
Assumed interest rates will drop by between 50 and 75 basis points on euro-based insurance policies with six-year tenures more longer, the commission said, as the EU remains burdened by sovereign debt problems, although the crisis has stabilized somewhat, the commission said.
The adjustment may boost policy sales in the short term because customers may want to buy ahead of cost hikes, which may help insurers to maintain sufficient liquidity and reasonable profitability, the commission said.
Separately, the commission approved plans by CTBC Life Insurance Co (中信人壽) to acquire the local unit of Canada’s Manulife Insurance Co (宏利人壽).
CTBC plans to integrate the Canadian insurer on Jan. 1, after inking a deal in August to acquire Manulife for NT$724 million (US$24.04 million) as the local insurer seeks to increase its economies of scale.
The commission said it gave the go-ahead after CTBC Life promised to retain all Manulife employees and honor existing policies.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS