First-year premiums (FYPs) generated by the nation’s life insurers continued falling in August, plunging 40 percent annually to NT$47.7 billion (US$1.64 billion), due to new rules restricting firms from offering unrealistically high bonuses to policyholders, a Life Insurance Association’s report last month showed.
It was the eighth consecutive month that insurers’ combined FYPs declined year-on-year, the data showed.
The Financial Supervisory Commission in July implemented a new rule requiring life insurers to set declared interest rates based on fixed-income investments, meaning lower bonus payments for customers, the agency said.
The commission in July lowered life insurance companies’ liability reserve interest rates on all policies denominated in New Taiwan and US dollars by 25 and 50 basis points respectively to keep them in line with market rates.
As a decrease in the liability reserve interest rate led life insurers to raise premiums for new policies, insurance products became more expensive, which also affected sales, the agency said.
A low interest rate environment, volatility in global financial markets and canceled marketing events were also a drag on sales of investment-linked insurance policies (ILPs), the agency said.
Among life insurance policies, which led all products with FYPs, making up 90 percent, traditional products’ first-year premiums retreated 46 percent year-on-year to NT$26 billion in August, while those of ILPs fell by half annually to NT$7 billion, the data showed.
For the first eight months, FYPs of traditional life insurance products fell 33 percent to NT$372 billion, while those of ILPs decreased 45 percent to NT$67 billion, the agency said.
Sales of the annuity policies and injury insurance products declined annually by 19 percent and 8 percent respectively during the January-to-August period, the agency said.
By comparison, health insurance policies’ cumulative FYPs grew 11 percent to NT$29 billion for the first eight months, as consumers became more concerned about their health insurance coverage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the association said.
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS