The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) would inspect 25 companies to see if they have contravened regulations while selling products to senior citizens, commission Chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧) said yesterday.
The commission selected 10 banks, six credit unions, six insurance companies and three securities companies for examination following a preliminary assessment, Huang told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee in Taipei.
The commission would look into whether the companies have sold large amounts of high-risk financial products, such as high-yield bonds with low ratings or stocks-linked funds, to people over 65, Financial Examination Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Tzy-hao (張子浩) said.
Photo: CNA
It would inspect whether the firms have promoted their products inappropriately, such as by encouraging clients to cancel fixed deposits in advance or to borrow money to buy the financial products, Chang said.
The commission would examine whether the companies have provided comprehensive information to clients about investment risks and the products’ content, he said.
The regulator would also check whether the firms have set anti-fraud mechanisms to confirm that their staff perform well and their clients are fully aware of investment risks, Chang said.
As senior citizens generally do not have a high risk appetite, companies should be more careful when selling risky products to them, he said.
“We are not saying that seniors must not buy risky products, but we want to ensure that financial companies understand their clients’ risk appetite and financial strength before selling products,” Huang said.
The fines for inappropriately selling financial products to senior citizens would be heavier than those imposed for selling such products to regular clients, he said.
Banks could be fined up to NT$50 million (US$1.8 million) if found to have contravened the regulations, while insurers could be fined NT$12 million, securities companies NT$4.8 million and credit unions could be fined NT$600,000, the commission said.
It has demanded that insurers record their marketing activities from beginning to end when selling investment-linked products to senior citizens.
The inspections are to begin later this month and end at the end of July, Chang said.
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
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS