English
The main goals of our Committee continue to be accelerating the pace with which Taiwan’s insurance industry embraces innovation and provides consumers with more convenient and more suitable protection insurance, while at the same time striking a balance between embracing that innovation and maintaining sound risk management.
In this year’s paper, we continue to focus on providing simple and innovative solutions through e-commerce, so as to introduce more efficient sales and claims processes to encourage an increased stress on protection insurance. In addition, promoting sound asset and liability matching principles, strengthening the industry’s financial stability, and adopting a risk-based and differentiated supervisory approach will efficiently strengthen the internal control and risk management of insurers.
Furthermore, in order to bring about more efficient usage of insurers’ administrative resources, we hope to see a reduction in the frequency of regulatory changes. Initiatives undertaken by the Insurance Bureau (IB) have enabled Taiwan to lead the region in ICS 2.0 and IFRS 17 implementation. The strong support for digital innovation and promotion of the regulatory sandbox and business trials have also spurred the insurance industry to adopt more innovative approaches.
The Taiwan insurance industry is continuing to push for digitalization, and we hope to accelerate the process in line with international digitalization trends. But the procedures are cumbersome and do not meet the expectations of customers in the digital age. Taiwan can do much better in these areas, delivering a more satisfactory customer sales and claims experience, 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 new rules are being devised to supervise the insurance industry, we urge the authorities to work together with industry to ensure that international market practices are followed and that a clear enforcement date is set to 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 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 fulfill the value of insurance and help the domestic Taiwan industry leapfrog towards 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 attractive to today’s young tech-savvy generation, which favors doing everything with a few clicks online. However, the Taiwan online life insurance market has grown relatively slowly since the e-commerce channel opened in 2014.
The slow pace of growth is attributable to several factors. First, only limited types of life insurance products with limited sum assured can be sold online. Some short-term simple protection products are also suitable protection products for online sales and would meet customers’ unmet needs. We hope to continue discussions with the authorities to further expand the product types that can be sold online to include these and other products as well as to increase the amounts that can be insured.
Second, an insurance company that receives a major penalty, whether or not such penalty is related to e-commerce sales breaches, is subject to having its sum assured limit and financial underwriting thresholds reduced. We recommend that the sum assured limit and financial underwriting thresholds be subject to reduction only when an e-commerce sales breach occurs.
Further, we support adoption of an improved personal identification mechanism which will help reduce the risk of moral hazard in life insurance applications. Our Committee appreciates the recent opportunities to discuss this issue with the authorities and supports this potentially positive development. With a better mechanism in place for personal identification, we expect that more types of life protection products can be made available to be sold online.
1.2 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. In line with global trends, we urge the Taiwan authorities to amend relevant insurance regulations with the aim of allowing the insurance industry to provide more convenient and efficient customer e-services online.
For example, current regulations only permit death insurance and small-amount claims to be filed online. Our Committee highly supports further expansion of the types of claims that can be made online. We also believe that a blockchain claim mechanism would help improve the claim process experience. In the future, under the conditions of suitable risk control and fraud prevention, we look forward to the continued lifting of limits on the claim application process for all kinds of product types and claim amounts in order to provide a better experience for customers and accelerate the payment process.
1.3 Help build a suitable ecosystem and re-conceptualize the insurance business for the Digital Era. Insurance has always been a service – a service of loss prevention and risk mitigation from the industry’s earliest inception in pre-Biblical times through the commencement of the modern insurance industry at London Lloyd’s Coffee House in 1688. The “service” is low-profile; the insurance industry has traditionally been a low-involvement, low-interaction industry that doesn’t attract a lot of customer affection. However, the world has changed. Led by the tech giants, technology and business are rapidly converging to form complex ecosystems and create new rules for success. COVID- 19 has accelerated this convergence, and the global integrated network economy is expected to grow by at least 10-fold in the coming years. In 2030, it is on course to constitute 25% of the global economy, compared to its current 2% contribution at most.
The permeation of digital technologies into the insurance industry will not only reshape customer expectations but also create a new ecosystem that will inevitably draw the industry into what have traditionally been non-insurance businesses. In order to benefit policyholders through greater risk prevention and a better customer experience, and to eventually benefit the insurers themselves through better customer acquisition and retention, the industry has begun to form integrated “ecosystems” through which participants seek to attain a level of service excellence comparable to what the e-commerce giants provide.
The Insurance Committee is grateful to the regulatory bodies for their continuous support for digital innovation and their efforts regarding the financial regulatory sandbox. We are also gratified to learn that the authorities consider the integration of e-commerce fields as one aspect of the regulatory system for purely online insurance. Though the integrated model is a global trend, as the industry continues to establish ecosystems and as different participants continuously bring in new services, it will inevitably become necessary at some point to redefine the scope of “insurance business.”
Thus, we urge the regulatory authorities to reconsider the core concept of “insurance business” with reference to the integrated ecosystem model, and then make changes in regulations that are applicable to all insurers. In the end, this process will enable the industry to offer more extensive services to financial-sector customers in Taiwan.
Suggestion 2: Further relax or remove the limit on total foreign investment.
Promoting sound asset/liability and investment 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 insurance products, foreign-currency-denominated insurance products are more asset-liability management (ALM) friendly to life insurance companies because of (i) the lack of foreign exchange risk and (ii) the availability of a much wider range of investment options with decent quality and sufficient liquidity for matching insurers’ liabilities. Insurers’ capacity to offer foreign-currency-denominated traditional insurance products is severely constrained by current regulations limiting total foreign investments. The limitation has been relaxed through the amendment of relevant regulations. Further relaxation or total 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, insurance companies would be able to participate in mature, diverse, and liquid foreign-capital markets without worrying about the foreign investment cap.
Suggestion 3: Adapt risk-based supervisory rules to facilitate differentiation by sales channel and product.
Different sales channels and different products pose different levels and types of risk for insurance companies. Some sales channels emphasize the speed and convenience of transactions, and for such channels the regulators will usually adopt appropriate risk-control measures. In the interest of risk management, for example, limits are placed on the types of products and amount of sum assured allowed for online and telemarking sales.
Adding stricter rules will reduce the advantages of speed and convenience for such sales channels. Thus, because the risks associated with such sales channels are different from those in face-to-face sales channels, different supervisory rules, and internal controls need to be employed. Further, the nature and risks of investment-linked products differ from those of simple protection products, signifying that the supervisory mechanism and internal controls also need to be different for different products.
To achieve effective supervision, we recommend a risk- based approach to setting regulations on internal controls. Insurance companies can then take risk mitigation action based on their own assessment of the risks they face, while the regulator conducts risk-based supervision and inspection. Currently there are different main supervisory regulations for the different sales channels and different product types. But the administrative rulings currently do not make such a clear separation. The Committee requests that administrative rulings also be similarly differentiated in the future.
Suggestion 4: Reduce the burden of frequent regulatory changes on stakeholders.
The insurance industry is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in Taiwan and is also subject to frequent changes in laws and regulations. Each change (even a minor change) in a law or regulation may require insurance companies to significantly alter or even completely overhaul their product design, policy terms and conditions, product flyers and brochures, IT systems, and other prior practices. Thus, frequent changes not only cause undue administrative burdens on insurance companies but also lead to excessive paperwork, unnecessary costs, and wasteful use of manpower.
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, we recommend that fixed effective dates (such as January 1 and July 1) be set for all newly enacted or amended laws or regulations promulgated during the previous six months. Rationalizing the implementation process for new laws and regulations in this way would alleviate much of the burden of regulatory changes on the insurance industry.
Chinese
加速推動保險業接受創新並提供消費者更便捷及符合其需求的保險保障，仍是本委員會今年持續推動的目標。同時，我們也期待保險業能在接受創新與維持健全風險控管之間取得平衡。
在本（2022）年的白皮書中，我們持續專注在透過電子商務提供簡單創新的解決方案，以更有效率的銷售和理賠流程，來鼓勵大眾持續增加保障型的保險。再者，持續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差異性監理，可以更有效的讓保險業者強化內控及風險控管。
此外，為減少業者在行政作業上以及資源的有效運用，委員會希冀未來能減少監管法規變動的頻率。主管機關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。另外，在監理沙盒及業務試辦的大力推動下，也讓台灣的保險業界持續向創新的方向邁進。
保險業的數位化已在持續推進中，我們希望能更加速以跟上國際數位化的趨勢。目前的作業流程繁瑣，甚難滿足客戶在數位時代下的期望。我們相信台灣在這些領域能做得更好，包含：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相當重要。
在制定保險業的新監理法規時，我們希冀主管機關持續和保險業者共同合作，密切遵循國際市場慣例，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。為有進展，建議雙方列出政策先事項，制定短程目標，並共同合作。本委員會謹此再次向政府單位表達由衷的感謝，特別是與保險局、金融監督管理委員會和國家發展委員會每季的白皮書追蹤會議，相關部會均持續與我們合作，以實現保險的價值，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型保險可於網路銷售，並減少對網路投保的限制。
網路投保為一般大眾提供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。然台灣自2014年開放網路投保以來，人身保險網路投保市場的成長卻仍然緩慢。
緩慢的成長可歸於幾個因素。首先，能在網路銷售的人身保險商品類型是受到限制的，而且保險金額亦同樣受限。一些短年期保障型商品，都是適合在網路銷售的保障型商品，可藉此滿足客戶的其他保險需求，我們期待能持續討論開放此類型商品的銷售及放寬可投保的金額。
其次，當保險公司受到重大裁罰時，無論該裁罰是否與網路投保相關，都會影響網路投保的可投保額度和財務核保的門檻。委員會建議，僅有當發生網路投保相關作業違法時，才影響保額限額和財務核保門檻。
再者，委員會支持改善身分確認的機制，其將有助於降低人身保險商品投保的道德風險。委員會感謝最近能與主管機關討論此議題，並樂見後續進展，並希冀等該等確認機制越臻完備，可以開放更多的人身保險商品透過網路投保進行銷售。
1.2 允許更多保險業作業流程數位化
因應消費者線尋求更方便及快速的服務，全球企業及政府的漸趨數位化，進而帶動了電子商務的成長。為因應數位化趨勢，我們建議主管機關修正相關保險法規，裨益保險業提供更便利及更高效的客戶服務體驗。
例如：關於理賠請求，目前法規僅允許身故保險金及小額的理賠，可進行線上申請，本委員會高度肯定開放更多此類保險得線上申請理賠。另外，委員會亦相信理賠區塊鍊的發展也會對消費者帶來更好的體驗。未來我們亦希冀在能兼顧風險控管及預防詐欺的情形下，持續開放各種產品理賠均能於網路上申請辦理，裨提供更好的客戶體驗及加速賠付作業。
1.3 數位時代下保險業務之重新形塑與生態系之建構
自保險從前聖經時代萌芽開始，直到現代保險業於西元1688年倫敦勞埃德咖啡館而生，保險一直是一種預防損失和減輕風險的服務。保險業「服務」很低調，傳統上，它是一個低參與度、低互動性的行業，因此無法吸引太多市場關注。然而，隨著世界的變化，科技巨擘的引領，科技與商業融合成複雜的生態系，並為成功創造了新規則。同時，COVID-19也加速此轉變，全球生態系網路經濟在未來幾年將至少成長10倍。相比其目前對經濟的貢獻最多為2%，到2030年時，將成長為25%。
保險業逐步導入的數位科技不僅改變客戶的期望，也創造新的生態系。在生態系的推動下，保險業將邁入傳統非保險業務領域，這是大勢所趨。為了使客戶從更佳的避險策略及顧客體驗中獲益，並使保險公司取得更多客戶及提高留存率，保險業開始建立整合「生態系」，業界夥伴利用生態系提供客戶優質服務，期望服務水準可比擬電子商務巨擘。
委員會感謝主管機構一直以來支持數位創新，以及在金融監理沙盒法制的努力，更欣聞主管機關將電子商務整合視為純網路保險監理法制中的一環。整合商業模式已是全球趨勢，隨著保險業持續建構生態系，以及生態系夥伴不斷導入新服務，我們勢必將重新定義「保險業務」的範圍。
我們希望主管機關能夠參照整合生態系模式，重新審視「保險業務」的核心概念，進而調整保險業界適用之監理法制，此將使保險業能為台灣金融消費者提供更廣泛的服務。
建議二：鬆綁或排除全部國外投資之法規限制
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。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，此限制已於歷次修訂國外投資管理辦法時逐步放寬，立意實屬良善。為更貫徹此項修法意旨，若能適度再放寬或全部排除此項限制，將可更進一步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：針對不同的行銷通路及不同的商品採取差異化的監理原則
不同的行銷通路及銷售商品類型，對保險公司有不同程度及種類的風險。某些行銷通路注重交易速度和便利性，主管機構通常會就此施加適當的風險控制監管措施，例如在網路行銷及電話行銷中，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。該等行銷通路可能產生的風險，與業務員的面對面銷售的風險是不同的，因此，在銷售行為及後續的行政作業上，亦應有不同的監理規範及內控方式。再者，投資型的商品與簡易的保障型商品亦有其本質上的不同，其可能產生的風險亦有所不同，除了消費者的適合度應有所區隔，其他的監理及內控機制也應有所不同。
為了實現有效的監理，委員會建議，應透過風險基礎原則來制定不同的內部控制法規，使保險公司可以根據其所面臨的風險採取相應措施，主管機關並依風險基礎的原則進行監督和審查。目前就不同的行銷通路及商品，適用不同的主要監理法規，但於相關監理函令未見此區別。本委員會希冀，在未來的相關監理函令中，主管機關亦能依其差異性做不同的規範及要求。
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。頻繁的修法不僅導致保險公司的行政工作負擔沉重，還會增加文書工作、成本及資源的耗費。
綜上說明，委員會敦請台灣主管機關在執行新法或修法時，應同時考量效率和有效性。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1月1日和7月1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。
