Four local non-life insurance companies have gained regulatory approval to use NT$4.47 billion (US$150.18 million) in special reserves to write off losses from COVID-19 insurance claims, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.
That made up about 9 percent of the total reserves of NT$48.1 billion set aside by insurers as of the end of April, the commission said.
The four are Cathay Century Insurance Co (國泰世紀產險), Chung Kuo Insurance Co (兆豐產險), Hotai Insurance Co (和泰產險) and Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Corp (新安東京海上產險), which, as of the end of last year, had risk-based capital ratios of 284 percent, 624 percent, 392 percent and 608 percent respectively.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
These figures could have sunk below the regulatory threshold of 200 percent at the end of last month, warranting capital injections to improve their finances, the Insurance Bureau said.
As of Monday, COVID-19 insurance policy compensation claims had reached NT$14.93 billion, which were paid out to 423,000 policyholders, data from the commission showed.
The compensation was 3.67 times the premium of NT$4.06 billion from sales of such insurance policies, the data showed.
In particular, compensation for COVID-19 vaccine insurance policies totaled NT$2.24 billion as of Monday, compared with NT$908 million in premiums from policy sales, the data showed.
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,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
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
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