The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) fined financial institutions and publicly listed firms NT$129.02 million (US$4.03 million) during the first eight months of this year for internal control, financial services misconduct and corporate governance-related breaches, data released last week by the commission showed.
The fines were down 30.42 percent from the NT$184.42 million imposed during the same period last year and were less than half — 46.97 percent — of the commission’s target of NT$274.68 million for the whole of this year, the commission said.
The commission attributed the decline in fines to a higher comparison base last year, when it meted out heavy penalties to a financial holding company for corporate governance breaches after a major shareholder was found to have improperly interfered in the company’s operations, as well as to several banks for employee involvement in assisting fraud rings or theft from clients.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
Among the commission’s three major subordinate agencies, the Banking Bureau and the Insurance Bureau imposed a lower total amount of fines in the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year, while the Securities and Futures Bureau imposed slightly more.
In the January-to-August period, the financial penalties imposed by the Banking Bureau were NT$39.72 million, down 52.09 percent from a year earlier. The largest fine was NT$12 million imposed on Taichung Commercial Bank Co (台中商銀), with fines of NT$8 million respectively imposed on Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行) and Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行).
The Insurance Bureau imposed total fines of NT$36 million during the eight-month period, down 27.13 percent year-on-year. The largest fine was NT$9 million imposed on the Taiwan branch of Cardif Assurance Vie (法國巴黎人壽), followed by a NT$6 million fine imposed on the Taiwan branch of Cardif Assurance Risques Divers (法國巴黎產物保險).
Both are subsidiaries of the same France-based international insurance company.
During the same period, the Securities and Futures Bureau fined several securities and futures firms, including Time Securities Investment Consulting Co (時間投顧) and Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co (國泰投信), for a total of NT$53.3 million, up 0.34 percent year-on-year.
The commission’s budget documents show that it has set target penalties of NT$263.37 billion for next year, down about 4.12 percent from this year’s target and the lowest in the past four years.
The commission said that it views these fines as a way to help firms correct their deficiencies, not as a means of generating income.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS