2024 AmCham DEIA Celebration Spring Happy Hour – Celebrating Life & Diversity
2024 AmCham DEIA Celebration Spring Happy Hour – Celebrating Life & Diversity
AmCham Happy Hour
Extending business to overseas markets and meeting international standards and practices have become core aspects of Taiwanese insurance companies’ sustainable development in the face of the challenges of globalization. Consumers, especially the younger generation, are pushing the insurance industry to embrace innovation. The Taiwan authorities, in turn, need to strike a balance between embracing that innovation and maintaining sound regulatory supervision.
In this year’s paper, the Committee continues to focus on providing simple and innovative solutions through e-commerce to encourage an increased stress on protection insurance. The paper proposes introducing more efficient sales and claims processes, making better use of data, promoting sound asset and liability matching principles, strengthening the industry’s financial stability, and adopting a risk-based supervisory approach, reducing frequent regulatory changes while allowing flexibility of foreign insurers in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) reporting. Initiatives undertaken by the Insurance Bureau (IB) have enabled Taiwan to lead the region in ICS 2.0 and IFRS 17 implementation.
While the banking industry has moved ahead in paperless and digital solutions, the insurance industry has been lagging behind. Inefficiency, especially regarding outdated sales and claims processes, is the main problem. The processes are cumbersome and do not meet the expectations of customers in the digital age. We can do much better in these areas, delivering a more satisfactory customer sales and claims experience by leveraging data from the new eID, reducing the amount of mundane paperwork, and moving towards a greener operating environment. To strengthen the industry’s financial stability, it is also important to ensure that assets match liabilities in the original currency.
When setting up new rules to supervise the insurance industry, the authorities and the industry need to work together to closely follow international market practices and avoid any significant deviations from them. Setting a clear enforcement date would enable industry to be better prepared operationally and reduce paper wastage.
Strong engagement between industry and government is critical to achieving these goals. As an industry, we are committed to working closely with the IB and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), and we appreciate the clear desire of the IB and the FSC to reciprocate. To make progress, it is important to set out priorities that we can all embrace, and then define short-term objectives to work toward together. The Committee is thankful to the government, especially the IB, FSC and the National Development Council (NDC) through the quarterly White Paper follow-up meetings, for its continuing commitment to work with us to realize the value of Insurtech, make the insurance industry’s services more effective and competitive, and help the Taiwan industry leapfrog toward globalization.
Suggestion 1: Provide more opportunities for e-commerce to help modernize and develop Taiwan’s insurance market.
1.1 Allow more types of protection insurance to be sold online and reduce the constraints on e-commerce insurance sales. Online insurance provides fast and convenient protection to the public. It has all the constituents to be an instant hit with today’s young tech-savvy generation, which favors doing everything with a few clicks online. Although COVID-19 in 2020 led to a surge in e-commerce and accelerated digital transformation, the Taiwan online life insurance market has grown relatively slowly since the e-commerce channel opened in 2014.
The slow pace is attributable to several factors. First, only limited types of life insurance products with limited sum assured (coverage) can be sold online. Some short-term health products – such as one-year dread disease, surgery, cancer, and hospital income insurance – are suitable protection products for online sales to meet customer’s unmet needs. Second, the sum assured limit and financial underwriting threshold of e-commerce are affected when an insurance company receives a major penalty, whether or not the penalty is related to e-commerce sales breaches. We recommend that more short-term protection products be allowed for sale online and that the sum assured limit and financial underwriting thresholds be affected only when an e-commerce sales breach occurs.
1.2 Permit data-sharing in line with the new eID policy. Global trends to strengthen personal data protection may prevent insurance companies from accessing policyholders’ personal data without directly contacting them to obtain their express consent, even if there is justifiable cause. Stringent restrictions on personal data sharing may sometimes prevent insurance companies from providing certain valuable services or acting for the benefit of the policyholder. For example, it may be impossible to mail notices of insurance benefits to a policyholder’s most recent address if it is different from the one given on the policy application form.
The Committee recommends that the Taiwan authorities consider relaxing relevant constraints and implementing a cross-industry data-sharing mechanism to facilitate the provision of insurance-related services to policyholders. The new eID policy promoted by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) could be a good example of such a mechanism, balancing the provision of commercially viable large-scale e-services with customers’ need for privacy and security in online transactions.
We propose that the IB work with the MOI to explore the possibility of allowing insurance companies to access certain personal data stored in the eID on-line database for the purpose of providing insurance-related services to their policyholders. For example, on the condition that reasonable security measures are in place, insurance companies should be permitted to check the most current and valid addresses of its policyholders from the eID database for mailing insurance policies and notices to the policyholders. Such a data-sharing mechanism will help bring about more effective communications with customers while adequately protecting customer interests as well as the rights and obligations of both parties under the insurance contract.
1.3 Allow more insurance services to be fulfilled online. The trend toward digitalization by enterprises and governments worldwide in response to the need for convenient and high-efficiency services has been driving growth in e-commerce, especially after the emergence of COVID-19. We therefore urge the Taiwan authorities to amend relevant insurance regulations related to online services for both life and non-life insurance products, with the aim of allowing the insurance industry to provide more e-services to consumers for a more convenient and efficient customer experience in the following areas:
A. Insurance application process.
B. Endorsement process.
For the sake of consistency in the overall service flow, we suggest providing a mechanism for endorsement via the online platform for consumers to update/amend/modify their policies digitally, without a hard copy endorsement with wet signature.
C. Claims process.
There is no provision requiring claims to be filed in a hard copy form with wet signature. However, current regulations explicitly permit claims to be filed online only for death insurance. For travel inconvenience insurance, the insurer is allowed to pay indemnification to the insured after receiving a LINE notification from the insured of the insurable incident without the need for a hard copy of the claim form with wet signature.
Again for the sake of consistency, we suggest revising the regulatory scheme to enable consumers to file claims online for other types of insurance as well. The result would provide added consumer convenience and a faster payment process.
In addition, insurers could include fraud risk controls in their online claims processes to protect this function from abuse. The changes suggested above are consistent with what is permitted in numerous other jurisdictions, including the U.S., the EU, and Australia.
Suggestion 2: Permit insurers to exclude foreign investments backing foreign-currency-denominated traditional insurance products when calculating the limit on total foreign investment.
Promoting sound asset/liability and investment and risk management practices is crucial to ensuring the soundness of the insurance industry as a whole by enabling well-thought-out and carefully managed investment and risk-management strategies. Insurers in Taiwan should have the same access to, and benefits from, more advanced regulations regarding investment, hedging, and risk management capabilities as are available in other modern insurance markets. We hope to see more progress toward this end in the coming year.
Compared with TWD-denominated traditional products, foreign-currency-denominated products are more ALM (asset-liability management)-friendly to life insurance companies because of the lack of foreign exchange risk and much wider range of investment options with decent quality and sufficient liquidity for matching insurers’ liabilities. Nevertheless, insurers’ capacity to offer foreign-currency-denominated traditional insurance products is severely constrained by current regulations limiting total foreign investments. We believe the removal of this constraint could substantially enhance the ALM adequacy of life insurance companies.
Another positive impact of such removal would be the encouragement of product innovation in the life-insurance industry. When introducing creative, new foreign- currency-denominated products to the market, this removal would allow insurance companies to participate in mature, diverse, and liquid foreign-capital markets without worrying about the foreign investment cap.
Suggestion 3: Adopt risk-based supervisory rules for differentiated sales channels.
Different sales channels pose different levels of risk for insurance companies. Requiring insurance companies to set up equally strong internal control mechanisms for all sales channels is impractical. In fact, applying stringent internal controls to less risky sales increases insurance company compliance cost, obstructs the sound development of the business, and causes inconvenience for customers in securing timely insurance protection.
Take the telemarketing channel, for example. Telemarketers do not collect premiums from customers or indeed have any personal connection with customers. Post-sale services are provided by the insurance companies. Therefore, regulations aimed at preventing premium embezzlement by mapping a customer’s address, email address, telephone number, and IP address against the telemarketing representative’s identity are superfluous when the risk is so low.
In addition, the average ticket size of telemarketing sales is small compared to VUL (variable universal life insurance) or annuity product sales. In the case of a telemarketing sale, it may be unnecessary to check whether the customer took out any loans in the previous three months, a procedure that customers may find onerous. Regulations originally designed for bancassurance or face-to-face sales by agents can be somewhat relaxed given the low inherent risk in the telemarketing channel.
To achieve effective supervision, we recommend a risk-based approach to setting regulations on internal controls. Insurance companies can take mitigating action based on their own assessment of the risks they face, while the regulator conducts risk-based supervision and inspection.
Suggestion 4: Reduce the burden of frequent regulatory changes on stakeholders.
The insurance industry is among the most heavily regulated sectors in Taiwan, and is also subject to frequent changes of laws and regulations. Any minor change in a law or regulation may require all insurance companies to significantly alter or even completely overhaul their product design, policy terms and conditions, product flyers and brochures, IT systems, and other customary practices. Frequent changes not only cause undue administrative burdens on insurance companies but also lead to excessive paperwork, unnecessary costs, and wasteful use of resources.
In view of the above, the Committee urges the Taiwan authorities to place equal emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness in implementing new or amended regulations. For example, fixed enforcement dates could be set for all laws or regulations enacted or amended during the same designated period – such as January 1 and July 1 for those promulgated during the previous six-month periods. Streamlining the implementation process for new laws and regulations would alleviate much of the burden of regulatory changes on the insurance industry.
Suggestion 5: Show flexibility regarding ESG reporting requirements for foreign insurers.
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was first introduced to Taiwan three decades ago. Now major companies in Taiwan annually publish CSR reports with regulators’ encouragement to communicate their accountability to the public regarding economic, social, and environmental matters. Over the past decade, institutional investors have increasingly adopted a holistic perspective that embraces sustainability metrics and other factors in helping guide their buy and wait strategies. The result is what is known as ESG (Environment, Sustainability, Governance) investing.
In contrast to CSR, ESG is purely driven by economic sustainability and derived from investor needs. Noticing this trend, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sought to provide better reference for the investment market by creating unified guidelines for listed companies in preparing their ESG reports. Fortunately, the FSC is aware of this global trend and has set out its own ESG investing initiative in the form of the “Corporate Governance 3.0 – Sustainable Development Roadmap.” In the long run, the FSC expects to see annual ESG reports that cover both sustainable environmental and economic information, replacing the existing CSR report.
For its part in paving the way toward that goal, the IB is preparing guidelines for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and drafting amendments to the “Corporate Governance Best Practice Principles for Insurance Enterprises.” We strongly believe that those initiatives will enhance governance in the insurance sector. However, no shares of foreign life insurers licensed in Taiwan are traded in the Taiwan securities markets, as the public offering obligation is waived for them. Rather, their Ultimate Holding Companies (UHCs) are listed and traded in offshore securities markets, and those UHCs publish global ESG reports covering all their business operations around the world. Such global ESG strategies are applicable to all business operations in each country where they operate (including Taiwan).
Taking these elements into account, we recommend that the authorities either 1) waive the ESG report-publishing obligation for all foreign life insurers in this market, or 2) allow such insurers to utilize their UHC’s ESG report to meet this obligation.
面對全球化的挑戰,將業務擴展到海外市場並符合國際標準和業界慣例已成為台灣保險業得以永續發展的核心,年輕一代的消費者更加速推動保險業來接受創新。相對而言,台灣主管機關則需要在接受創新與維持健全監管環境兩者之間取得平衡。
在本(2021)年的白皮書中,委員會將持續專注在透過電子商務提供簡單創新的解決方案,以鼓勵人們增加保障型的保險。白皮書建議引進更有效率的銷售和理賠流程,更加善用數據,促進穩健的資產和負債匹配原則,強化保險業的財務穩定性,以及採用建立在風險基礎之上的監理方法,在減少頻繁的監管法規變動的同時能允許外國保險業在環境、社會和公司治理(ESG)和氣候相關財務揭露(TCFD)報告規定中保有彈性作法等提議。保險局(IB)採取的監理措施已使台灣在 ICS 2.0 和 IFRS 17 實施方面處於領先地位。
相較銀行業在無紙化和數位化的積極推動進程,保險業的數位化進度則相形見緩,其主要原因為過時的銷售和理賠流程等問題造成了效率不彰,保險業為符合繁瑣監理規定所制定出之作業流程也甚難滿足數位時代的客戶期望。其實我們可以在多方領域做得更好,像是透過利用新式數位身分證資料,以提供更令人滿意的客戶銷售和理賠經驗,減少繁瑣的紙本文件數量,並朝著更環保的營運環境邁進。另外,為了強化保險業的財務穩定性,確保資產與以原始貨幣計價負債的匹配也很重要。
在制定保險業的新監理法規時,主管機關應和保險業共同合作,密切遵循國際市場慣例,並避免重大偏離國際慣例。將特定實施日期改為一定期間完成,將幫助者保險業者在營運上能有更充分的準備,並減少不必要的紙張浪費。
保險業與政府的密切合作對於實現這些目標至關重要。身為保險業業者,我們致力於與保險局(IB)及金融監督管理委員會(FSC)緊密合作,並感謝主管機關願意與業者互相交流的明確立場和態度。為能促使保險業進一步發展,首要任務為確認優先順序,再來則是訂定短期目標,以利雙方共同努力達成。委員會謹此向政府單位表達由衷的感謝,特別是對保險局、金融監督管理委員會和國家發展委員會能透過每季的白皮書追蹤會議,持續致力於與我們合作,以實現保險科技的價值,使保險業的金融服務更具效率及競爭力,並幫助台灣產業向全球化躍進。
建議一:開放更多電子商務銷售管道,推動台灣保險市場現代化與發展
1.1 開放更多類型的保障保險可於網路銷售,並減少對電子商務保險銷售的限制。
網路投保為一般大眾提供了快速且便捷的保險保障,尤其對現今精通科技的年輕世代而言,其具備了所有快速交易且熱銷的要素。儘管 2020 年的 COVID-19 疫情大幅提升了電子商務的交易量並加速市場數位化轉型,台灣自 2014年開放網路投保以來,人身保險網路投保市場的成長卻相對緩慢。
成長的緩慢可歸於幾個因素。首先,能在網路銷售的人身保險商品類型是受到限制的,而且保險金額(或承保範圍)亦同樣受限。一些短年期健康險,例如:一年期重大疾病險、手術險、癌症險和住院日額保險,都是適合在網路銷售的保障型商品,可藉此滿足客戶不足的保險需求。其次,當保險公司受到重大裁罰時,無論該裁罰是否與電子商務銷售違法有關,都會影響電子商務的保險金額額度和財務核保的門檻。因此,委員會建議開放更多的短年期保障型商品於網路投保通路銷售,並且僅有當發生電子商務作業違法時,才會影響保額限額和財務核保門檻。
1.2 透過與內政部新式數位身分證政策開放數據共享
在全球強化個人資料保護之趨勢下,在未直接取得保戶之明示同意前,保險公司縱使有正當理由,也無法取得必要之個人資料。此類限制可能使保險公司無法提供對保戶採取有利的行動或有意義的便民服務。例如,如果保戶在要保書填具之地址與其最新地址不同,保險公司在無從得知其最新地址的情況下,將無法將保險給付通知書郵寄至保戶的最新地址。
委員會建議台灣主管機關考慮放寬相關限制,並開放跨業個人資料共享機制,以便提供保戶更加完善且便利的保險相關服務。內政部(MOI)倡導之新式數位身分證政策或許可作為上述共享機制的絕佳案例。透過配套整合後,就保戶對於線上商業交易模式的大量需求以及對其隱私和安全性的需求之間,得以取得平衡。
我們建議保險局能與內政部進一步研議,允許保險公司在為保戶提供保險相關的服務之特定目的下,能夠取得儲存於新式數位身分證線上資料庫某些個人資料之可能性。例如:在採取合理安全措施的情形下,允許保險公司得利用數位身分證資料庫確認保戶最新有效之地址,以郵寄保險單和通知函給保戶。此種資訊共享機制將有助於保險公司與客戶進行更有效的溝通聯繫,同時充分保障客戶利益以及雙方在保險契約下之權利和義務。
1.3 允許更多保險業作業流程數位化
特別是在 COVID-19 疫情肆虐全球之後,消費者對於線上服務的需求明顯增加,進而帶動了各個產業的電子商務成長。因此,綜合壽險及非壽險的現狀和需求,我們建議主管機關針對支持電子商務的發展,重新審視目前法令規範所需修正的部份,讓保險業在下述的各個作業流程上,能更進一步地發展電子商務及提供數位化的服務,裨益於提供更便利及更高效的客戶服務體驗:
[投保程序]
[批註作業]
[理賠請求]
上述建議,已是許多國家(如美國、歐盟和澳洲)的現行制度,併此說明。
建議二:允許保險業者於計算整體國外投資限額時,得排除全部外幣傳統型保險產品之國外投資
推動完備的資產負債管理、投資及風險管理實務作法,對於整體保險業的健全極為重要。這將仰賴於深思熟慮且細緻的投資及風險管理策略。委員會建議可參酌其他地區的保險市場,採取更先進及具彈性的投資、避險、及風險管理的法規,相信這將有利於整體市場的發展。我們希望在未來一年內在該方面取得更多進展。
相較於新台幣傳統型保險產品,外幣傳統型保險產品可達成更加適當的資產負債管理(ALM),其原因包括無需承擔匯率風險、較多的優良投資工具可供選擇及較高的市場流動性,然而目前保險業銷售外幣傳統型保險產品的總量受到國外投資管理辦法的限制,若能移除該限制將可大幅提升保險業資產負債管理的完善程度。
此外,藉由放寬國外投資額度,允許保險業者更積極參與成熟、多元且高流動性的國際資本市場,亦有助於業者積極創新研發新產品,滿足消費者之多元需求。
建議三:針對差異化的行銷通路採取風險基礎法的監理原則
不同的行銷通路帶給保險公司不同程度的風險。要求保險公司為所有行銷通路建立相同的內部控制機制是不切實際的。實際上,對風險較小的行銷通路採行嚴格的內部控制措施將增加公司的法令遵循成本,阻礙保險業務的健康發展,並造成客戶不便,使其無法及時獲得保險保障。
某些行銷通路最初設計目的是為了提高交易速度和便利性。主管機構通常會於此類行銷通路中的法規施加適當的風險控制監管措施,例如僅允許有限的產品類型和保險金額,以確保風險的管理性。在這種情況下,把針對通路風險較高的嚴格監管規則應用於此類風險較低的通路將會削弱此類通路原本所賦予之快速和便利的功能。
以電話行銷通路為例,電話行銷人員不向客戶收取保費,也不與客戶建立任何私人聯繫,售後服務亦由保險公司提供。因此,與面對面銷售通路相比,電話行銷通路挪用保費的風險較低。把針對面對面通路防止保費挪用的法規規定,例如須將客戶的地址、電子郵件地址、電話號碼和 IP 地址與業務員資訊相比對之規定,電話行銷通路的適用上似乎可以適度放寬。
此外,與變額萬能壽險(VUL)或年金險產品銷售相比,電話行銷的商品為簡易的保障型商品,保單的平均保費金額相對為低。所以在電話行銷的情況下,似無須再檢查客戶在前三個月是否曾有辦理任何借貸,且這樣的程序通常會使客戶感到繁瑣。有鑑於電話行銷通路固有的風險相對較低,原本為銀行保險或業務員面對面銷售而制定的法規可某種程度地在電話行銷通路有所放寬。
為了實現有效的監理,委員會建議透過風險基礎原則來制定內部控制法規,使保險公司可以根據其所面臨的風險採取相應的有效措施,主管機關則依風險基礎的原則進行監督和審查。
建議四:減少因法規變動頻率較高繼而造成各面相負擔
在台灣,保險業屬受主管機關高度嚴格監管的行業之一,相關法令修正與變更頻率與密度亦為數可觀。任何法規的新增與修訂,皆使保險公司需微幅調整甚至大幅變動其產品設計、保單條款、商品文宣、資訊系統以及其他實務做法。頻繁修法不僅導致保險公司的行政承載負荷較重,還會產生過多的文書工作及成本、資源的耗費。
綜上說明,委員會敦請台灣主管機關在執行新法或修法時,應同時考量效率和。舉例來說,同一時期內頒布或修訂的所有法律,均設相同的生效日,例如,對於過去六個月內頒布的法律或法規,以一月一日和七月一日為生效日。簡化新法的實施流程,得以大幅度地減輕保險業因應法令變動的負擔。
建議五:提供外商壽險公司 ESG 報告發布彈性
企業社會責任(CSR)的概念最早於三十年前引入台灣,時至今日,在監理機關的鼓勵下,台灣的大型企業每年均發布企業社會責任報告,分別在經濟,社會和環境事務層面上向社會大眾說明其社會責任。機構投資人於過去的十年中,逐漸在長期投資策略面上導入永續指標及其他因子輔助,其成果為如今的 ESG投資。
與企業社會責任相反,ESG 因投資者之需求而生,純由經濟永續性驅動。美國證券交易委員會(U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC)注意此一趨勢,正設法制定統一的準則,為上市公司編篡 ESG 參考報告,進而為投資市場提供更好的基準。幸運地是,金融監督管理委員會亦不落人後,並於「公司治理 3.0-永續發展藍圖」中闡述了我國的 ESG 發展計劃,長遠來說,金融監督管理委員會期望我國企業未來得以涵蓋永續環境和經濟資訊的年度 ESG 報告,取代現有的 CSR 報告。
為了實現該目標,保險局刻著手起草《保險業公司治理實務守則》修正案,並準備氣候相關財務揭露(Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures)之實務執行指引。委員會深信,上述舉措將強化保險業之治理。外商壽險公司依法均得免於公開發行股票,他們的股票並未在台灣證券市場上進行交易。然而,外商壽險公司的最終控股公司(UHC)均在境外證券市場上市交易,基於回應機構投資人之資訊需求,外商壽險公司的最終控股公司涵蓋其全球所有業務營運的 ESG 報告,其ESG策略適用於其全球營運所在國家/地區(含台灣)的所有業務營運。
鑒於以上事由,我們建議主管機關:(1)免除外商壽險公司的 ESG 報告編纂發布義務,抑或(2)允許外商保險公司於履行 ESG 報告編篡發布義務時,得引用其最終控股公司所出版之 ESG 報告。