Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), the life insurance unit of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), yesterday announced it plans to cooperate with China Ping An Life Insurance Co Ltd (中國平安人壽保險), the largest privately owned life insurer in China, to enhance the quality of service for both firms’ policyholders.
It is to be the first cooperation between Taiwanese and Chinese life insurers following the Financial Supervisory Commission’s decision to allow cross-strait business cooperation earlier this year.
“Under the cooperation, Fubon Life’s policyholders may settle a claim at more than 700 China Ping An service counters if they have an accident in China,” Fubon Life president Benson Chen (陳俊伴) told a media briefing.
At the same time, Fubon Life will offer the same service to China Ping An policyholders, which total 60 million, in need of such services in Taiwan, Chen added.
Chen said more than 5 million Taiwanese visited China last year, with Chinese visitors to Taiwan standing at nearly 4 million, an indication of the necessity for cross-strait life insurers to expand their business scale and service collaboration.
Fubon Life accepted more than 2,000 claims related to its policyholders’ accidents in China last year, with total claims for medical-related services reaching NT$55 million (US$1.76 million), which Chen said indicates the importance of cooperation.
In related news, Cathay Life Insurance Co Ltd (國泰人壽), the life insurance unit of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), is planning to cooperate with China Life Insurance (Group) Co (中國人壽保險集團), offering the same type of service.
Cathay Life’s board is expected to review the feasibility of the alliance in the near future, according to the company.
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS