Latest news with #FinancialSupervisoryCommission
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Taiwan Eases Rules to Help Insurers Cope With Currency Surge
Taiwan regulators have moved to help the island's insurers deal with the impact of a recent surge in the local currency, which had left them with massive paper losses on their foreign holdings. Insurers will be allowed to use six-month average exchange rates when they calculate risk-based capital in their semi-annual reports, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement. At present, insurers use the exchange rates of the final day of the reporting period.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Taiwan to Restrict Hostile Takeovers in Crowded Financial Sector
Taiwan regulators announced plans to effectively block hostile takeovers in the island's crowded financial sector, months after preventing a roughly $4.1 billion deal that would have created Taiwan's largest financial group. The Financial Supervisory Commission will amend rules to close the door to non-consensual mergers and acquisitions to ensure market stability, it said in a statement late Tuesday. In the future, acquiring financial firms must get a board resolution from the target company indicating no objection, or show that they can secure a majority of shares or board seats to complete the acquisition, the FSC said.
Bloomberg
05-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Taiwan Regulator Summons Life Insurers as Soaring Currency Bites
Taiwan's markets regulator is meeting some of the island's largest insurers as a skyrocketing local currency piles pressure on hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The Financial Supervisory Commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening Taiwan dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meetings are taking place Monday afternoon in Taipei, where central bank Governor Yang Chin-long will also hold a media conference on the currency at 4:30 p.m. local time.
Business Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Short selling is simply part of normal market functioning
EVERY time stocks plunge as drastically as they did in early April following the announcement of the Trump tariffs, the issue of whether to curb short selling gets revived. On Apr 8, for instance, in response to the US tariff-led pressure, Thailand announced a ban on short selling of stocks and tightened other share trading rules to curb volatility. The ban on short selling of all securities, except for market makers, lasted until Apr 11. Also in early April, Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission limited for about one week the number of shares that could be sold short and raised the minimum short selling margin ratio from 90 to 130 per cent. Perhaps the most extreme example of short-selling curbs were to be found in South Korea which, ironically, lifted year-old measures at the end of March only days before the US-led tariff turmoil. This came after Korea Exchange introduced a system that can detect naked short selling, which involves selling stocks without borrowing them and is illegal in South Korea. Fines for illicit profits have also been raised, and enforcement measures have been tightened. A profit of five billion Korean won (US$3.5 million) or more can even result in a prison term between five years and life imprisonment. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Why this worry about an activity that is routine and commonplace in the currency, futures and commodities markets? One is the view that it is morally objectionable to profit from a company's demise or losses by others. Another is that it is somehow wrong to sell something not originally owned so as to make a profit by buying it back after the price has fallen (as in via a naked short). Yet another is that it adds unnecessarily to market volatility. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a belief in Singapore that short selling should be made illegal and banned. Many also felt that short sellers should be severely punished. Regulators here took a more enlightened view and, consistent with how a disclosure-based regime is supposed to work, opted for a prudent middle ground. For example, if a sell on the Singapore Exchange is a short sale, it has to be marked as such and the data on such sales is then compiled and published. As for penalties, this comes via the exchange's buying-in process which kicks in for naked positions that result in failed scrip delivery, a process which can result in painful financial losses if prices had risen in the intervening days. The reality – apart from the fact that regulators should really not be in the business of mandating rules that only push prices in one direction – is that for every objection, there can be an equally plausible counter justification. For example, those who see shorting as aggravating volatility and raising risk should also acknowledge that short sellers actually take on an inordinate amount of risk since their upside is limited while the downside is theoretically unlimited. This is why institutions in Korea welcomed the lifting of the ban. Market analysts saw the resumption of short selling as 'likely to be neutral to positive for the broad market' and to 'improve market efficiency and price discovery, presenting potential alpha opportunities''. This is not to say that short selling should be encouraged or discouraged. But the activity should be recognised as being part of normal market functioning and be treated as such.
Express Tribune
19-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Taiwan short-selling curbs extended again
Chinese and Taiwanese flags are seen in this illustration, August 6, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS Listen to article Taiwan's top financial regulator said on Saturday it would extend temporary curbs on the short-selling of shares to help ensure stock market stability, and did not give an end date for when the restrictions might be lifted. The curbs were first imposed on April 6 after the United States imposed sweeping import tariffs, prompting global market turmoil. Initially imposed for one week, they were then extended for a further week. In a statement, Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission said the curbs would continue, without saying when they might end. US tariff policy and the outcome of negotiations with other countries are still highly uncertain, and there will continue to be "fluctuations" on global stock markets, it added. If there are significant changes on the market, the regulator said it would "adjust the relevant measures accordingly to maintain market stability and investors' interests." It did not elaborate.
