The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) would review the qualifications of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co’s (南山人壽) former chairman Du Ying-tzyong (杜英宗) if he is to serve as a board director at other insurance companies, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
Du, who became Nan Shan’s chairman in 2015, was suspended in September last year for two years for failing to properly supervise the installation of an information technology system that later caused problems for policies sold by the company.
Ruen Chen Investment Holding Co (潤成投資), Nan Shan’s major shareholder, on Thursday replaced him with Donald Chen (陳棠) as its legal representative on the company’s board.
Chen was later appointed by the board as chairman, the company said in a regulatory filing.
However, with Du reportedly planning to transfer to Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) to help it with its plan to acquire another insurer, lawmakers at a meeting in the Legislative Yuan asked Koo if this would be a breach of regulations.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked if it would be legal for Du to serve at another financial company, while DPP Legislator Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌) asked whether the commission could directly demand that Du not be involved in the operation of any life insurance company.
As Du was suspended from his job, but not dismissed, he can continue working in the financial industry, Koo said.
“I do not know where Du is headed, but if he is to serve as a board director at another insurance company, we will take into consideration the fact that he was suspended when he was working for Nan Shan when reviewing his qualifications,” Koo said.
The commission is not likely to lift the ban on Nan Shan’s sales of investment-linked policies any time soon, as the company has failed to improve its information system, Koo said.
The commission has continued to receive complaints from consumers and sales agents over the information system’s problems, even though it had fined the company NT$30 million (US$1 million) and ordered it to make improvements, he said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS