The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday bolstered regulations on who qualifies to be an independent director of a listed company, with the rules to take effect on Wednesday next week.
Based on amendments to the Regulations Governing Appointment of Independent Directors and Compliance Matters for Public Companies (公開發行公司獨立董事設置及應遵循事項辦法), a listed company’s board members, supervisors and employees cannot be independent directors of another listed company in which it has a stake, Securities and Futures Bureau Deputy Director Sam Chang (張振山) told a news conference in New Taipei City.
If two listed firms have the same major shareholder, share the same chairperson or general manager, or their chairs or general managers are married, their board members, supervisors and employees cannot not serve as independent directors of the other company, Chang said.
“We think there would be concerns about conflict of interest, as such companies would have close ties, even though they would not necessarily have stakes in each other high enough to define them as affiliated,” he said.
The amendment came as lawmakers accused the government of failing to detect that Oceanic Beverages Co Inc (大西洋飲料) appointed employees of its business partner Cathay Beverages Co (國信食品), which has a 0.49 percent stake in Oceanic Beverages, as independent directors.
People who have audited a company in the two preceding financial years or the current year cannot be appointed as independent directors, the amendments say.
Independent directors should not be paid more than NT$500,000 (US$16,556) for providing financial, accountancy or legal services for the company, Chang said.
Most independent directors in Taiwan are paid less than NT$500,000 per year, so if they earn more than that, they would be deemed to have a pecuniary relationship with the firm and it would not be appropriate for them to be independent directors, he said.
However, if a lawyer has earned more than NT$500,000 working for a listed company’s chairperson, they can become an independent director, he said.
As the Ministry of Education has changed its rules for faculty at public universities working at a second job, they should gain approval from their institutions before becoming an independent director to prevent disputes, Chang said.
Listed companies would not need to immediately dismiss independent directors who do not qualify according to the amended rules, but must appoint new candidates after their terms expire, he said.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS