The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is covering for Singapore-based online shopping platform Shopee and ignoring blatant contraventions of the law, the Economic Democracy Union said yesterday.
FSC Chairman Huang Tien-mu’s (黃天牧) failure to control Shopee’s capital flow threatens Taiwan’s financial stability, Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said, adding that financial crises in Taiwan have not always been caused by banks.
Staff layoffs around the world and the instability of its Web site show that the company is “in trouble,” Lai said, adding that the problems might be due to one of Shopee’s principal stockholders, Tencent Holdings Ltd, being affected by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) standard prosperity policy.
Photo: Liu Hsin-te, Taipei Times
In January last year, Tencent sold off a large portion of its stake in Sea Ltd, Shopee’s parent company, reducing its share to 18.7 percent from 21.3 percent.
Economic Democracy Union researcher Hsu Kuan-tse (許冠澤) said that Shopee Pay (Taiwan) Co’s online transactions average more than NT$3.1 billion (US$100.98 million) per day, exceeding a threshold that means the subsidiary should have to file capital increase documentation and apply to be an electronic payments institution, which would bring increased oversight.
However, the Investment Commission denied Shopee Pay’s request to increase its capital and the FSC rescinded its electronic payments license in August 2021, Hsu said.
Shopee Pay should have reached out to businesses with electronic payment licenses to handle its cash flow, Hsu said.
However, Huang has instead allowed Shopee Taiwan Private Ltd to take over handling Shopee Pay’s cash flow, Hsu said.
The FSC’s promises that Shopee Pay would seek a licensed institute to handle its cash flow cannot be trusted, as the FSC promised that the move would be completed by last year, the Economic Democracy Union said, adding that Huang said it might have been given an extension to June.
The FSC’s actions would allow Shopee Pay to operate without the license until July 1 next year, well after the presidential election, which would harm consumers’ rights and destabilize Taiwan’s finances and national security, Hsu said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
RSS