The Financial Supervisory Commission on Tuesday fined Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商銀) and its insurance unit, Taichung Bank Insurance Brokers Co Ltd (台中銀保險經紀人), a total of NT$10.8 million (US$359,904) for lax internal controls.
The insurance company was fined NT$4.8 million after the commission conducted an inspection in 2018 and found that the firm had squandered entertainment fees, ignored client complaints and given bonuses to sales personnel with poor performance.
“Although the insurance company clearly recorded the entertainment expenses, it could not elaborate on who could spend the fees or employees’ expense limits,” Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Yu-hui (張玉輝) said.
“In short, it had not established an internal control protocol,” Chang said, adding that insurance companies should have internal controls to govern spending.
Chang declined to disclose how much Taichung Bank Insurance Brokers had spent in entertainment expenses over the past few years.
The insurance company could not explain why it rewarded sales personnel who had not sold any products, Chang said, adding that the practice breached the Insurance Act (保險法) and Regulations Governing Insurance Brokers (保險經紀人管理規則).
The bureau told the firm that it had one month to fix the blunder, he said.
The commission fined the insurer’s parent company, Taichung Commercial Bank, NT$6 million for its failure to detect the unit’s regulatory breaches, Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Kuang-hsi (黃光熙) said.
“It was strange that the bank could not detect the unit’s breach, even though it inspected the insurer two times per year,” Huang said.
The commission decided to impose a stricter fine on the parent company for failing to supervise and monitor its subsidiary, Huang added.
Some of the bank’s staff privately took care of clients’ money, which was inappropriate, so the bureau has prohibited the bank from applying to set up new branches until it improves its management, Huang said.
Taichung Commercial Bank on Wednesday reported NT$1 billion in revenue for last month, down 17.2 percent from a year earlier, saying that cumulative revenue increased 3 percent year-on-year to NT$12 billion.
The company last month posted pretax profit of NT$561 million, down 1.46 percent from a year earlier, while cumulative pretax profit rose 9.5 percent year-on-year to NT$5.2 billion, the company said.
For the whole of last year, earnings per share were NT$1.16, up 7.41 percent from a year earlier, the company added.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS