Joint Committee Luncheon: The Future of Financial Progress and FSC Policy

Addressing the current state of the financial industry and the policy path forward, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) vice chairman Cheng-Mount Cheng told a recent AmCham Taipei luncheon audience that the FSC over the past year has taken positive steps to build a better business environment and stimulate financial product innovation in Taiwan.

The presentation, entitled “The Overview of Financial Industry Development and The FSC’s Main Policy,” was delivered at the Regent Taipei on June 16 at a meeting co-sponsored by the Chamber’s Asset Management, Banking, Capital Markets, and Insurance Committees.

Speaker Cheng, Cheng-Mount 鄭貞茂, Vice Chairman at Financial Supervisory Commission 金融監督管理委員會副主委, Andrea Wu, AmCham President, and AmCham Taipei Committee Co-Chairs

Cheng devoted much of his talk to the FSC’s proposed programs for financial technology (“fintech”) innovation. He said that responding to concerns voiced by several fintech companies, the FSC has prioritized implementation of a “regulatory sandbox” – an encouraging space for technological innovation, free of most existing regulatory constraints. Such a mechanism would enable both financial institutions and fintech developers to test new products and services for a trial period of up to 18 months.

Cheng affirmed that fintech is a top priority for the FSC, but that the Legislative Yuan needs to pass authorizing legislation before the regulatory sandbox mechanisms can go into effect.

The Vice Chairman identified the FSC’s main policies as:

  • Promote fintech
  • Develop green finance
  • Support the New Southbound Policy
  • Promote measures for the aged society
  • Expand the scale of the capital market
  • Promote financial inclusion measures
  • Strengthen prevention of money laundering
  • Protect consumers’ rights and interests

Cheng said that these policy priorities are opportunities to bring Taiwan’s financial industry in line with international standards, and even enable Taiwan to become a global leader of financial innovation. “I believe with tech advancing very fast every day, we will see results,” he observed.

While optimistic about the financial industry’s future, Cheng is nonetheless very aware of the FSC’s jurisdictional limitations in shaping that vision. “Many people know that the FSC is in charge of financial markets, but they don’t understand that our capability is quite limited,” he noted.

In a comment for the AmCham Taipei blog, Christine Jih, co-chair of the Asset Management Committee and Chairman & CEO of BNP Paribas Investment Partners Taiwan, said: “Increasing interdepartmental coordination is key to streamlining regulation and strengthening Taiwan’s financial industry. The Vice Chair has been very modest but we all know he has done a lot for the industry. Mr. Cheng is very open-minded and keen to improve this system. This is an industry facing new challenges and new issues every day, and government departments need to talk to each other to keep up with these advancements.”

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