Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday announced that Victor Hsu (許澎) would be its new chairman after Eugene Wu (吳東進) was suspended by the Financial Supervisory Commission and barred from the firm’s board until his term ends in June 2023.
It is to be the second time that Hsu has taken over a Wu post as chairman after he assumed the role at Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) after Wu retired from that company in June.
“We would review Hsu’s qualifications and then decide whether to interview him in person,” Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Wang Li- hui (王麗惠) told a news conference in New Taipei City.
Meanwhile, the commission has rejected Jko Asset Management Co’s (街口投信) appointment of Kevin Hu (胡亦嘉) as chairman, citing insufficient documents, Securities and Futures Bureau Chief Secretary Kuo Chia-chun (郭佳君) told the news conference.
“The firm did not answer our request to submit Hu’s certificates of graduation, which are necessary documents to review Hu’s qualifications,” Kuo said. “This indicates that the firm is non-compliant.”
Hu said that the commission on Friday last week had harassed his employees by interrogating staff and searching its offices.
The commission conducted an on-site inspection that day, as Jko Asset Management failed to clearly explain its Tuofu Bao (託付寶) investment service, Kuo said.
“We intended to check whether the asset management company has good internal controls after its affiliates Jkopay Co Ltd (街口支付) and Jko Fintech Co (街口金融科技) launched a controversial service,” Kuo said, adding that the inspection was normal practice.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai