Several more insurers are likely to join Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰世紀產險) and CTBC Insurance Co (中國信託產險) in plans to inject additional capital in the second half of this year, after writing off 5.43 million insurance policies as of yesterday, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said.
Cathay Century and CTBC have reported to the commission that they intend to conduct capital injections of NT$10 billion (US$336.41 million) to NT$4 billion respectively, Insurance Bureau Director-General Shih Chiung-hwa (施瓊華) told a virtual news conference.
The commission expects several insurers to follow suit this year after they have a better understanding of the losses expected from COVID-19 insurance policy compensations, Shih said.
Fubon Insurance Co (富邦產險) on Wednesday said that it has assigned more staff members to address the sales of COVID-19 insurance policies.
Additionally, during May and last month Fubon compensated 103,000 policyholders with combined payments of NT$4.08 billion, 15 times its NT$260 million payouts from January to April, it said.
The FSC is to continue monitoring disputes between policyholders and insurance companies, Shih said.
Meanwhile, local property insurers reported a combined pretax loss of NT$16.2 billion in May from COVID-19 insurance compensation payouts and setting aside reserves to cushion further losses, Shih said.
The losses in May erase property insurers’ net profits for the first half of the year and led to a cumulative pretax loss of NT$9.6 billion as of the end of May, the commission said.
Life insurance providers in contrast reported a combined pretax loss of NT$7.1 billion in May, in light of greater foreign exchange losses, tumbling stocks and lower unrealized bond gains amid central bank rate hikes worldwide, the commission said.
Because of a rapid appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar versus the US dollar, the insurers’ combined forex losses tallied NT$33.3 billion in May, hitting a 13-month high, the data showed.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained