Claims for COVID-19 insurance policies could drop next month as the government plans to relax one of its quarantine rules, but property insurers might still proceed with their capital injection plans, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced on Monday that from Nov. 7, caregivers of confirmed COVID-19 cases would no longer need to self-quarantine if they test negative after the confirmed case completes their seven-day quarantine period.
As many COVID-19 insurance policies have been designed to pay policyholders for being quarantined, property insurers would have fewer compensation claims following the rule change, the commission said.
Photo: CNA
Each property insurer could pay NT$1 billion or NT$2 billion (US$30.94 million or US$61.88 million) less in compensation based on the eased rule, Chinese-language news reports said.
“COVID-19 insurance is unlike accident insurance or fire insurance, the premiums of which can be adjusted based on a fixed mechanism. Whether and how property insurers should compensate policyholders of COVID-19 insurance hinges on the nation’s anti-virus regulations,” Insurance Bureau Deputy Director-General Thomas Chang (張玉煇) said.
However, it is too early to say that some property insurers would not need to implement capital injection plans to boost their finances, because the COVID-19 situation is still developing, Chang said.
Accumulated COVID-19 insurance claims grew to NT$107.18 billion as of Monday, up NT$6.4 billion from a week earlier, the commission said, adding that 2.83 million policyholders had been paid out so far, accounting for 56 percent of all people who had purchased COVID-19 insurance.
The combined net worth of all property insurers last month plunged NT$538.5 billion month-on-month to NT$828.5 billion, with combined pretax losses of NT$110.4 billion for the first nine months of the year, commission data showed.
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
RSS