FSC, Labuan sign memorandum
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Labuan Financial Services Authority of Malaysia regarding supervisory cooperation and mutual assistance in various fields.
The Malaysian government in 1990 launched Labuan as an offshore financial center, with two Taiwanese banks, Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐國際商業銀行) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), establishing branches there.
Taiwan has signed 48 MOUs or letters of exchange to provide for cross-border supervisory cooperation with authorities in different jurisdictions.
Fubon online shopping approved
Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險) has become the first local insurance company to receive regulatory approval for online insurance shopping services, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said.
Consumers may purchase various Fubon Insurance policies online, such as compulsory and voluntary automobile liability insurance, residential fire and earthquake insurance, and residential risk perception, with insurance coverage online restricted to NT$50,000 or lower a year.
The commission is still evaluating applications by four other local insurance companies.
Foreign reserves up US$780m
The nations’ foreign exchange reserves rose to US$421.48 billion at the end of last month, increasing US$780 million from one month earlier, thanks to returns from foreign exchange management, the central bank said yesterday.
The gain came even though most central banks around the world saw their reserves decline against a stronger US dollar.
China recorded a loss of US$10.5 billion in foreign exchange reserves to US$3.89 trillion, Russia shed US$15.1 billion to US$439.1 billion, and Japan lost US$13.6 billion to US$1.26 trillion, the central bank said.
Zones no danger to health: Kuan
Minister of National Development Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) yesterday said the government’s free economic pilot zone regulations on imports and exports would not be relaxed if if the goods may endanger national security or public health in Taiwan.
Kuan made the remark at the legislature’s Economics Committee meeting, where lawmakers were concerned that article 41 of the draft bill on free economic pilot zones would be a loophole for food manufacturers to import adulterated products into Taiwan without being inspected by customs or health authorities.
Largan posts record sales
Handset camera lens supplier Largan Precision Co (大立光) yesterday reported record sales of NT$5.45 billion (US$178.1 million) for last month, up 86.55 percent from NT$2.92 billion a year earlier and 17.96 percent higher than NT$4.62 billion in September.
Revenue for the first 10 months of the year totaled NT$34.38 billion, up 63.33 percent from the same period last year.
Simplo revenue up 8.85%
Notebook computer battery maker Simplo Technology Co (新普科技), which also supplies battery packs to Apple Inc, yesterday reported revenue of NT$5.95 billion (US$194.44 million) for last month, up 8.85 percent year-on-year and 10.18 percent from the previous month.
The sales figure last month signaled the eighth consecutive month for Simplo to post a month-on-month increase, according to the company’s filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In the first 10 months of the year, cumulative revenue totaled NT$46.94 billion, up 9.19 percent from a year earlier, it said.
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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