Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Corp (新安東京海上產險) has completed a capital injection of NT$12 billion (US$388.48 million) to boost its risk-based capital ratio to a healthy level of 200 percent, the firm said yesterday.
Since last year, the company had already completed three additional injections totaling NT$27.99 billion, as its finances were severely hit by COVID-19 insurance claims.
In April, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) asked the firm to submit improvement plans and conduct a capital injection, as its risk-based capital ratio had declined below the regulatory minimum of 50 percent — it was minus-685 percent at the end of June last year and minus-1,078 percent at the end of last year.
Screen grab from Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Corp’s Web site
The firm’s equity-to-asset ratio was minus-54.92 percent at the end of June last year and minus-87.92 percent at the end of last year, far below the regulatory minimum of 3 percent, Tokio Marine data showed.
The most recent capital injection was funded by the firm’s major shareholders: Yulon Motor Co (裕隆) and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co Ltd, a unit of Tokio Marine Holdings Inc.
Separately, Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽保險) and Hontai Life Insurance Co (宏泰人壽) plan to sell property to fund their cash injections in light of weakening solvency gauges.
Mercuries Life’s risk-based capital ratio was 155 percent and its equity-to-asset ratio was 2.19 percent at the end of last year, while Hontai Life’s were 205 percent and 1.13 percent respectively, the firms’ data showed.
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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