Premier-designate Cho Jung-tai’s (卓榮泰) appointment last week of Peng Jin-lung (彭金隆) as chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) caught many people off-guard, prompting the question: Who is Peng Jin-lung?
The 59-year-old associate dean of National Chengchi University’s College of Commerce was a civil servant before taking up teaching positions at local universities. He has worked in the financial and insurance fields for many years, sitting on the boards of several insurance companies, and has often consulted for the government on financial policies. He has also written many articles for financial media, covering a wide range of topics from capital supervision, financial accounting and risk control in life insurance to International Financial Reporting Standard 17 (IFRS 17), an aging society and national health insurance.
Peng’s expertise and practical skills are recognized highly by academia and industry, and his appointment has given the upcoming Cabinet a dose of financial clout. However, leading the commission, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, he might face an uphill battle in a field strewn with financial and corporate landmines.
Next month, Peng is to take the baton from outgoing chairman Thomas Huang (黃天牧), who has led the agency for the past four years, a record tenure for an FSC head since the market watchdog was created in July 2004. The commission has had 12 chairs (not including acting chairs) over the past two decades.
Many of Huang’s predecessors spent less than two years in the position, five stayed less than one year and only two of them were in office for more than three years, an indication that taking the helm of the FSC is not an easy job. Peng would also be the third academic to chair the commission — following Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉), who headed the FSC from 2006 to 2007, and Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正), who led it from 2007 to 2008, both from Academia Sinica.
Some have praised Peng’s ability to coordinate policies and adopt pragmatic approaches during his time at the Taiwan Risk and Insurance Association and the Taiwan Financial Services Roundtable Co. Even so, he cannot do the job on his own, and needs a strong team to tackle an increasing number of fraud incidents and corporate scandals, as well as to propose new financial services and market laws to spur financial innovations such as virtual assets.
The combined pretax profits of local banks, insurance companies, securities and futures brokerages, and investment trusts totaled NT$703.6 billion (US$21.56 billion) last year, up 46.71 percent from a year earlier and the second-highest on record, after the NT$935.55 billion registered in 2021, commission data showed. Banks were the largest contributor to last year’s profit growth, generating more than 70 percent of overall profits, while insurance companies accounted for a lower-than-expected 14 percent of the total.
While the insurance sector remains resilient, its performance lags behind other sectors in the financial industry, presenting an obvious challenge for Peng to create an environment in which restrictions are easing and profit opportunities are increasing for insurers. Other than that, the new FSC head must also assist the insurance sector in smoothly adopting IFRS 17 and the new Insurance Capital Standard framework next year.
The FSC is also responsible for regulating financial holding companies, banks, securities and futures brokerages, investment trusts and other financial institutions. The market wants to see if Peng would provide a level playing field in which players can introduce more products under less restrictive regulations.
Other issues and challenges also await the incoming FSC chairman, such as regulating virtual asset management, curbing financial scams and promoting financial technology, if he is lucky enough to survive for a longer term.
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