Taiwan: Shin Kong targets higher sales of foreign-currency insurance plans
Source: Asia Insurance Review | May 2018
Asia Taiwan Wealth Management
Shin Kong Financial Holding, one of Taiwan’s largest financial services groups, aims to increase sales of foreign currency insurance policies and wealth management products by double digits this year as hedging costs remain a challenge.
The group, which focuses on life insurance, made the statement after reporting net income of NT$13.51bn ($463m) for the first two months of this year. These results already exceeded the level for the whole of last year, making Shin Kong the second most profitable financial services group, behind Cathay Financial Holding, according to a report by The Taipei Times.
Hedging costs remain a top challenge for the insurance sector and for Shin Kong Life, the group’s main subsidiary. The fast appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar last year caught the industry off-guard, Shin Kong Financial vice chairwoman Catherine Lee said, adding that the local currency has continued to appreciate this year to date.
Shin Kong Life has more than NT$100bn in cash which would allow it to increase holdings in assets abroad that might benefit from interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks, said Shin Kong Financial chief investment officer James Yuan. A