The local finance sector reported combined pretax profit of NT$675.7 billion (US$23.77 billion) last year, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday, attributing the record-high to life insurers’ investment gains and securities firms’ fee incomes.
Life insurers reported combined pretax profit of NT$206.1 billion, up 33.2 percent year-on-year, on the back of investment gains of NT$83 billion in global stocks markets, commission data showed.
Meanwhile, life insurers recorded NT$296.8 billion in foreign-exchange losses and hedging expenses last year, up 1.92 percent from a year earlier, due to the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation against the US dollar, the commission said.
The NT dollar rose 5.6 percent against the greenback last year.
About two-thirds of life insurers’ investment portfolios, totaling more than NT$18 trillion, are overseas investments or denominated in US dollars, it said.
The life insurance industry posted combined losses of NT$581 billion in the valuation of their US dollar-denominated assets as of the end of last month, which was partly offset by gains of NT$436 billion in the valuation of their hedging tools denominated in NT dollar or other Asian currencies, the commission said.
Hedging expenses totaled NT$160 billion last year, it said.
Property insurers’ combined pretax profit grew 6.3 percent annually to NT$17 billion, the data showed.
Last year, securities companies reported combined pretax profit grew 51 percent year-on-year to NT$65.8 billion, futures companies’ pretax profit expanded 17 percent to NT$5 billion and securities investment trust firms’ pretax profit increased 20 percent to NT$10.9 billion, all hitting the highest in nine years, the commission said.
However, banks’ profits fell last year, as their combined pretax profit decreased 13 percent to NT$312.7 billion due to declining interest income, foreign exchange losses and lower investment gains, it said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
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The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to