Fundraising through security token offerings (STOs) would be approved starting from October at the earliest, which would particularly benefit start-ups, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
The STO regulations are to be a world first, as most of the commission’s foreign counterparts require STOs to comply with existing securities laws, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
“It was not easy to establish a set of regulations, considering there was little to reference in other nations. We needed to balance consumer protection and industrial growth, and curb market volatility,” Koo told a news conference in New Taipei City.
Although the regulations might not please everyone, they are the best version the commission could think of, he said, adding that the rules would be open to public comment for two months.
A securities token is a kind of virtual currency. Unlike bitcoin, which has no central issuer and can only be created through a process called “mining,” securities tokens are launched by companies that wish to raise funds.
The commission did not change a NT$30 million (US$964,599) fundraising limit stipulated in the draft regulation, although the funds would be exempted from some administrative requirements.
Companies wishing to raise more funds would need to apply to run an experiment in the regulatory sandbox.
However, the commission loosened restrictions on investors by allowing them to purchase NT$300,000 in securities tokens for a single project, up from the previously proposed NT$100,000, based on investors’ opinions shared during a public hearing, Koo said.
To prevent investors from manipulating token prices, the number of tokens traded per day may not exceed half of the total number of issued tokens, Koo said.
Privately held companies registered in Taiwan would be allowed to conduct STOs, whether local or foreign, while listed companies cannot, as they already have other fundraising tools, he said.
The commission has not yet received any STO applications, but start-ups are expected to show interest, as they have fewer fundraising tools, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director-General Tsai Li-ling (蔡麗玲) told the Taipei Times.
Companies would not be permitted to issue tokens on more than one exchange, which is responsible for checking issuers’ qualifications and overseeing their white papers, Koo said.
Exchanges that wish to launch their own securities tokens would be monitored by the Taipei Exchange, Koo said.
Only exchanges with paid-in capital of more than NT$100 million could issue STOs after obtaining a securities dealer license, although they may only help companies conduct one STO per year and the cumulative funds raised may not exceed NT$100 million, the commission said.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
STABLE DEMAND: Delta supplies US clients in the aerospace, defense and machinery segments, and expects second-half sales to be similar to the first half Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) expects its US automation business to remain steady in the second half, with no signs of weakening client demand. With demand from US clients remaining solid, its performance in the second half is expected to be similar to that of the first half, Andy Liu (劉佳容), general manager of the company’s industrial automation business group, said on the sidelines of the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei on Wednesday. The company earlier reported that revenue from its automation business grew 7 percent year-on-year to NT$27.22 billion (US$889.98 million) in the first half, accounting for 11 percent
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
RSS