Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽) is optimistic about increasing its gross written premiums this year, encouraged by interest rate hikes in the US that may boost sales for US dollar investment-linked policies.
Gross written premiums at the life insurance unit of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) grew 4.4 percent last year to NT$515.4 billion (US$17.6 billion) as a stable global economy benefited investment appetite, although foreign exchange volatility eroded some gains, company data showed.
Net income totaled NT$32.32 billion, an increase of 12.7 percent, with earnings per share of NT$3.9.
“The global landscape outlook is fair, while the likelihood of surprises for the local currency’s movement is subsiding,” Fubon Life president Benson Chen (陳俊伴) said.
The New Taiwan dollar appreciated 8.14 percent last year, eroding local insurers’ partial profits, but equity gains across global bourses more than likely offset the pains, analysts said.
Fubon Life is better prepared this year to hedge its currency-related risks, Chen said.
Investment-linked policies denominated in the US greenback might gain more popularity this year after turning into a mainstream product last year, company vice president Fred Liao (廖運宏) said.
Interest rate hikes last year by the US Federal Reserve allowed such products to generate yields of about 3.5 percent, compared with 2 percent for similar products denominated in New Taiwan dollars, Liao said.
The Fed has indicated there will likely be three rate hikes this year, but analysts have forecast faster adjustments as inflation expectations flare.
Fubon Life refrains from offering policies linked to target-date funds even though its peers have seen strong sales for such products, Liao said.
“Customers of such products are not fully aware of the risks involved,” Liao said, adding that 40 percent of their underlying assets are non-investment-grade debts.
Fubon Life plans to hire 6,000 more sales agents this year, Chen said, adding that the average age of the company’s sales agents is 29.8.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS