The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday fined Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) NT$7.2 million (US$252,233) for embezzlement and other irregularities, as the regulator seeks to bolster corporate governance.
The penalty, the third that the Taipei-based insurer has received this year, was imposed after routine inspections found that Shin Kong insurance agents embezzled clients’ money and the company failed to conduct thorough probes, the commission said.
Shin Kong Life has been given three monetary penalties this year totaling NT$38.8 million, the commission said.
Photo: CNA
Thirty-two customers filed 46 complaints involving NT$26.63 million in premiums, it said.
Several forms were submitted by agents bearing the same addresses and telephone numbers for policyholders, with the data being from family members of the agents, it said.
Additionally, agents exaggerated coverage and promised fee refunds when pitching policies, it said.
Shin Kong did not investigate the complaints or penalize implicated agents before closing the cases, the commission said.
The insurer also failed to look into policies where the agents and loan brokers were the same people, which opens the door to unhealthy sources of income, it said.
Shin Kong Life has been asked to take disciplinary action against rogue sales agents and their supervisors, in proportion with their misdeeds, the commission said.
Fitch Ratings on Monday last week lauded the increased frequency and severity of sanctions imposed by the commission on domestic financial institutions, saying that the moves reflect the regulator’s determination to boost corporate governance of the sector.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
RSS