The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday paved the way for American International Group Inc (AIG) to expand its presence in the Taiwanese market after the US insurance giant sold Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) five years ago.
The commission said it has approved the company’s Singapore-based AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte Ltd (AIG API) setting up a branch in Taiwan to further focus on commercial insurance operations here.
In 2011, AIG inked an agreement to sell its 97.57 percent share in Nan Shan to Ruen Chen Investment Holding Co (潤成投資) for US$2.16 billion, while continuing its non-life insurance business in Taiwan.
In June last year, AIG announced selling AIG Taiwan Insurance Co Ltd's (美亞產物保險) consumer and SME businesses to Nan Shan for US$158 million, or NT$4.92 billion. The deal has not yet closed and is still subject to regulatory approvals.
The commission said that AIG’s expansion to the Taiwanese market is motivated by Nan Shan Life’s backing and improved global financial market conditions compared with 2011.
Following the completion of the deal, AIG Taiwan, the US company's subsidiary here, will rename to Nan Shan General Insurance Company and to focus on the personal and life insurance businesses, while the forthcoming branch to be set up by AIG API is to focus on selling large-scale commercial and property insurance policies, the commission said.
The addition of the branch is set to bring the number of property insurers in Taiwan to 18, up from 17 as of the end of last month, the commission said.
Separately, the commission said that as of the end of January, non-performing loans among domestic banks jumped to NT$2.5 billion, with more than 10 banks incurring bad debts of more than NT$100 million, while the bad debt coverage ratio has dropped 19.54 percent annually to 555.43 percent.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
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