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.
SILICON ISLAND: When asked about geopolitical tensions, Lisa Su said that ‘Taiwan is absolutely critical to the semiconductor supply chain, and very, very critical for AMD’ Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) yesterday said the company plans to “substantially” increase manufacturing capacity next year through its Taiwanese supply chain, particularly with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related processors continues to outstrip supply. “It is a very exciting time right now for all kinds of compute, and especially on the CPU [central processing unit] side,” Su said during a visit to Taiwan. “The overall market has increased a lot in 2026, and so we have also increased our own supply and capacity in 2026, but I can
INFRINGEMENT: The investigation comes after a complaint from Vicor Corp, with the company seeking a limited exclusion order as well as cease-and-desist orders, the ITA said The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched a Section 337 investigation naming Taiwanese technology companies, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), as respondents. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) pledged assistance if needed. The USITC said on Friday in a statement that it had voted to institute an investigation under Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930 into certain vertical power delivery systems, related components and computing devices incorporating such systems. The investigation covers 20 companies from Taiwan, China, Germany and the US, the commission said, adding that it
INDUSTRY STANDARD: Most global semiconductor companies have tied employee bonuses directly to corporate profits, the union said, urging Micron to do the same Micron Memory Taiwan Co’s (台灣美光) Taoyuan union secured strike authorization yesterday after a six-day vote, ramping up pressure on management to build a reasonable profit-sharing mechanism. Before the strike, the Taoyuan union “encourages” members to join a protest in Taipei on Oct. 19, union chairman Jerry Lin (林哲瑞) told a news conference in Taipei. The union did not rule out staging a snap strike, Lin said. The union has 2,258 registered members, with 88.3 percent backing the strike, he said. The vote comes as Micron’s board of directors is meeting today and tomorrow in the US. The union expects the board to respond
Elon Musk said his business empire would build and operate Terafab independently, quashing speculation about industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) swooping in to run his ambitious chipmaking venture. Based in Texas, the Terafab project is Musk’s effort to break into the business of fabricating chips, in service of his companies Tesla Inc and SpaceXAI. While Musk had said that he was in discussions with TSMC, the trillionaire clarified in an X post yesterday that the only matter under consideration is for TSMC potentially leasing some part of the planned site and would not involve any operational role. “Maybe TSMC