Taiwan financial institutions are set to benefit from ROC government measures aimed at encouraging local fund managers to promote domestic investment options over foreign offerings.
“Many ROC nationals hold direct foreign investments through overseas accounts generating huge commissions and management fees for international institutions,” an official from the Financial Supervisory Commission Banking Bureau said March 6.
“These outflows represent missed business opportunities and wasted resources that could be used to help local fund managers develop more lucrative financial products,” the official said. “We need to find a way to bring this money back to Taiwan.”
The first step in this process involves a round-table discussion between bureau officials and representatives of local fund managers March 9 in the FSC’s offices.
“We will review current investment vehicles and discuss measures to sharpen the sector’s competitiveness,” the official said. “We also plan to go over existing regulations and see if anything needs changing to better reflect market realities.”
Concerning industrywide calls for further regulatory easing on cross-strait banking and investment products such as offshore structured notes, the official said the bureau is consulting relevant agencies and holding meetings with business leaders to arrive at a decision supportive of investors and sector development.
Evidence of the FSC’s thinking on this matter is illustrated by its announcement March 6 that Taiwan brokerage firms will soon be greenlighted to trade offshore-listed mainland Chinese stocks.
Once administrative procedures are completed, 42 of the island’s FSC-approved securities firms will be able to invest in the shares or trade them on behalf of their clients.
“This move will give investors more choices and put the local securities sector on an equal footing with their foreign counterparts,” an official from the FSC Securities and Futures Bureau said. (JSM)
Write to Meg Chang at meg.chang@mail.gio.gov.tw