Two local firms applied to the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to set up Web-only non-life insurance companies before the deadline on Monday, the regulator said.
One of the applications was submitted by CTBC Insurance Co (中國信託產險), which Chinese-language news media reported would partner with Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) to launch the new business.
The CTBC-Far EasTone venture would focus on usage-based insurance, a type of vehicle insurance with a premium that is usually based on the customer’s driving behavior rather than their age or gender, local news media reported.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
CTBC would hold an 80 percent stake in the new business, with Far EasTone owning the remaining 20 percent, local news media reported.
The commission did not identify the second applicant, saying only that it is an insurance broker.
It remains unclear whether the companies would obtain a license, as the FSC has no limit on the number of licenses it would issue, Insurance Bureau Deputy Director Lin Chih-hsien (林志憲) told a news conference on Tuesday.
The application review would take about five months, he said.
A Web-only insurer mush have paid-in capital of at least NT$1 billion (US$31.1 million) and is not allowed to sell policies through physical channels such as salespeople, as its sales must be carried out completely online, the commission said.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
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