The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is considering tightening its controls on financial services providers’ investments and it is planning to unveil its policy direction within the next two months, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday.
Koo’s statement came after lawmakers questioned the commission’s aim to have non-financial companies regulate investments in the financial sector, which they said might lead to undue influence over investees, in addition to a series of governance lapses.
FAT Group (樺福遠航集團), parent company of Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (遠東航空), last week secured enough votes to win five seats on COTA Commercial Bank’s (三信商銀) board of directors.
A number of real-estate developers have also amassed significant stakes in several financial holding companies, giving rise to market rumors of proxy fights over board seats in elections next year.
Investors who have been building their presence on the boards of multiple financial holding companies could lead to rule violations, including profiteering, contravention of non-compete clauses, compromising trade secret protection and affecting overall governance, Koo said during a question-and-answer session at the legislature.
“In my view, investors should limit their investments in the financial sector to a single company,” Koo said, adding that exceptions could be made for state-run companies whose major stakeholders are government departments and agencies, as well as foreign institutions and foreign sovereign funds that are not seeking board representation.
The influence exerted by government investments are aimed at ensuring the public interest, such as stabilizing the market and fostering key industries, while activities of foreign and sovereign funds are purely motivated by investment returns, Koo said.
Koo added that companies are free to invest in the financial sector as long as they obey the rules stipulating that they submit regulatory filings for stakeholdings of 5 percent and apply for the commission’s approval for stakeholdings of 10 percent.
“We aim to establish clear boundaries that properly separate industries and the financial sector,” Koo said, adding that the commission would glean from precedents set in other developed economies.
However, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌) said that in the absence of tangible action taken by investors, the regulator’s concerns were unfounded.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗), a former FSC chairman, said that while the issue remained largely unknown to him during his tenure, he supports Koo.
Anna Bhobho, a 31-year-old housewife from rural Zimbabwe, was once a silent observer in her home, excluded from financial and family decisionmaking in the deeply patriarchal society. Today, she is a driver of change in her village, thanks to an electric tricycle she owns. In many parts of rural sub-Saharan Africa, women have long been excluded from mainstream economic activities such as operating public transportation. However, three-wheelers powered by green energy are reversing that trend, offering financial opportunities and a newfound sense of importance. “My husband now looks up to me to take care of a large chunk of expenses,
SECTOR LEADER: TSMC can increase capacity by as much as 20 percent or more in the advanced node part of the foundry market by 2030, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to lead its peers in the advanced 2-nanometer process technology, despite competition from Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, TrendForce Corp analyst Joanne Chiao (喬安) said. TSMC’s sophisticated products and its large production scale are expected to allow the company to continue dominating the global 2-nanometer process market this year, Chiao said. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is scheduled to begin mass production of chips made on the 2-nanometer process in its Hsinchu fab in the second half of this year. It would also hold a ceremony on Monday next week to
TECH CLUSTER: The US company’s new office is in the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan US chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) yesterday launched an office in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁), marking a significant milestone in the development of southern Taiwan’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry, the Tainan City Government said in a statement. AMD Taiwan general manager Vincent Chern (陳民皓) presided over the opening ceremony for the company’s new office at the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City (沙崙智慧綠能科學城), a new AI industry base and cybersecurity hub in southern Taiwan. Facilities in the new office include an information processing center, and a research and development (R&D) center, the Tainan Economic Development Bureau said. The Ministry
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
RSS