Major life insurance companies have lowered the declared interest rates for their New Taiwan dollar-denominated policies to 2 percent and US dollar policies to 3 percent on expectations of reduced returns on investment in a low-interest rate environment.
Life insurers announce each month the declared interest rates, which are used to calculate the size of policyholders’ distributions.
Fubon Life Insurance Co (富邦人壽), the nation’s second-largest life insurer with a market share of 17.2 percent, said it has slashed the rates for its 101 NT dollar-denominated products by 25 basis points — the same as the central bank’s March 19 rate cuts — to between 1.05 and 2.25 percent.
It cut the rates for its US dollar policies by 40 basis points to a range from 2.7 to 3 percent, Fubon said.
Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽), the third-largest insurer with a market share of 13.39 percent, cut its rates by 25 basis points for its 90 NT dollar products to between 1.9 and 2.05 percent, as well as 50 basis points for its 70 US dollar products to between 2.85 and 3 percent, it said in a statement.
Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), the fourth-largest insurer with a market share of 9.18 percent, reduced rates by a range of 8 basis points to 45 basis points for its NT dollar products and a range from 5 basis points to 45 basis points for its US dollar policies.
As a result, the maximum declared interest rates for the company’s NT dollar and US dollar policies were 2.05 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.
However, Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the nation’s largest life insurer with a market share of 19.45 percent, only cut rates by 5 basis points for its 54 US dollar products to a range of between 2.25 and 3.4 percent, and reduced between 6 and 15 basis points rates for its NT dollar products to between 0.52 and 2 percent.
“We slashed the rates less than our peers in the hope of generating good interest income,” Cathay Life executive vice president Lin Chao-ting (林昭廷) said by telephone, adding that the company is still confident that its declared interest rate could be more than 3 percent for this month.
“The revision in declared interest rates does not always correspond with the change in the benchmark rates, as they are primarily based on companies’ investment performance,” Lin said.
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