The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is planning to ease regulations to allow local financial institutions to invest up to 100 percent in information-technology companies, FSC Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said yesterday.
Current regulations allow financial institutions — including banks, insurers and brokerage houses — to invest only up to 5 percent in a non-financial company, in line with the principle of separation of banking and commerce.
However, to keep pace with changes in global market trends, the commission plans to revise the regulations by the end of this year to allow financial institutions to invest more in the IT industry to maintain the financial industry’s competitiveness, Tseng said.
Developments in networking, mobile communication, social media, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) have changed the financial industry, with IT playing a more vital role in financial institutions, he said.
“We cannot let information technology hold back the development of the financial industry, which could hurt the financial sector’s competitiveness,” Tseng told a media briefing.
Banking Bureau Director-General Austin Chan (詹庭禎) said the commission would pick industries that are closely related to the financial sector’s development and list them as potential targets for higher investment shareholdings of more than 5 percent up to 100 percent.
However, the commission will review each investment application on a case-by-case basis, with the targets for investment required to derive 60 percent of their profits from financial services, Chan said.
Tseng said the commission is also considering a suggestion by financial institutions to allow banks to operate cafes or other retail businesses in their branch offices.
“With online banking services becoming more mature, we hope banks can make better use of their physical bank branches to add value,” Tseng said.
In related news, the commission is scheduled to allow local banks’ offshore banking unit to set up branches in airport or port terminals in the second half of the year, allowing foreigners to open an account right after their arrival in Taiwan.
Chan said various private banks have expressed an interest in the new business, but they still need to secure a booth in the terminal before they can set up a branch.
The FSC is also scheduled to relax the margin loan position limit on June 29, allowing brokerages to control and manage margin loan position limits on an individual basis.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS