Insurance
1.Draft Amendment to Certain Provisions of Insurance Act
On 13 March 2025, the Executive Yuan announced the draft amendment to certain provisions of the Insurance Act. We summarize below:
(1) On 13 March 2025, the Executive Yuan announced the draft amendment to certain provisions of the Insurance Act. We summarize below:
(2) To add that a designated person meeting certain conditions may notify the insurer in writing to change the proposer when the surrender value of a life insurance contract has been seized, or when the proposer has been declared bankrupt or is subject to a liquidation proceeding.
(3) To add that the surrender value of health insurance and accident insurance contracts shall not be subject to seizure or enforcement where the proposer is the debtor.
(4) To add the legal authorization basis and related penalties against the delegation of insurance business operations to third parties.
(5) To exempt the criminal liability for purchasing insurance from offshore insurers through insurance brokers under specific circumstances.
Reported by: David Tsai / Joe Liao
Virtual Assets
2. Draft Virtual Assets Service Act
On 25 March 2025, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced the draft Virtual Asset Service Act (Act). We summarize below:
(1) To stipulate that the FSC is the competent authority under the Act;
(2) To stipulate the licensing regulations for virtual asset service providers (VASP), including classifying VASPs into six(6) categories based on the types of services they provide (exchanges, trading platforms, transfer providers, custodians, underwriters, and lenders), matters that require approval or permission, regulations for exclusive and concurrent operations, the organizational form being a company limited by shares in principle, name usage, and capital and operation bond requirements, as well as qualifications for responsible persons and business personnel;
(3) To stipulate the common management regulations for VASPs, including financial prudence requirements, internal control and audit systems, outsourcing operations, customer protection (e.g., confidentiality obligations, asset custody, fiat currency retention, and asset withdrawal), virtual asset lending, financial reporting, and information disclosure and retention;
(4) To stipulate respective requirements for each type of VASP;
(5) To stipulate the regulations for the industry association of VASPs, including the obligation for VASPs to join the industry association, the FSC management and supervisory authority over the industry association, as well as the industry association’s disposition authority, etc.;
(6) To stipulate the relevant regulations for stable coins;
(7) To stipulate the management and supervision of virtual asset transactions and services, including prohibition of virtual asset fraud and manipulation, the powers of the FSC, etc.;
(8) To stipulate the relevant criminal or administrative penalties for violations of the Act; and
(9) To stipulate that VASPs completing anti-money laundering registration prior to implementation of the Act shall apply for permission from the competent authority within 6 months after implementation of the Act, and shall obtain approval and license by the competent authority within 15 months after implementation of the Act.
Reported by: Stacy Lo/ Jeffrey Liu / Eva Chiu
Securities
3.Draft Amendment to Securities Investor and Futures Trader Protection Act
On 20 March 2025, the Executive Yuan announced the draft amendment to the Securities Investor and Futures Trader Protection Act. We summarize below:
(1) To expand the grounds for the protection institution to institute a legal action on behalf of the company or to claim for discharge of directorship, including securities fraud such as misrepresentation or concealment on financial reports or prospectus where the company’s directors or supervisors involve, unconventional transactions, embezzlement, breach of trust, or other illegal activities. (Article 10-1)
(2) In order to fulfill the growing business needs of the protection institution, to reallocate the extra interest amount from the protection fund after being used for business expenses back to the accumulated fund amount, serving as a source of funding for the protection institution. (Article 20)
(3) For law suits which have been initiated pursuant to Paragraph 1, Article 10-1 of this Act but not been concluded before the amendment to the Act, the amended provisions shall still apply (Article 40-1).
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Angela Lin
Labor
4.Draft amendment to Labor Union Act
On March 13, 2025, the Executive Yuan passed the draft amendment to the Labor Union Act and proposed the same to the Legislative Yuan for review and resolution. Based on the gist of the judgment of the Constitutional Court with Ref. No. 112-Xian-Pan-Zi-7, the bill provides the definition of “Factories and Sites”, which refers to the workplace with independent personnel, budgets, and accounting systems, and are eligible for factory or tax registration under the law. The requirements for “independent personnel, budgets, and accounting systems” are as follows:
(1) Having the right to hire and dismiss workers;
(2) Budgeting and executing the budgets; and
(3) Establishing an accounting unit or dedicated accounting personnel, and establishing account books to calculate its gains, losses and deficits.
Reported by: Paul Hsu / Julia Kuo
Financial
5.Amendment to the Scope and Reporting Procedure of Material Incidental Events and Other Compliance Matters for Financial Institutions
On 13 March 2025, the FSC amended the Scope and Reporting Procedure of Material Incidental Events and Other Compliance Matters for Financial Institutions. To be in line with current practice of negotiable instruments, the FSC limits the “material incidental events” where the amount of a single bounced negotiable instrument reaches NT$100 million to checks only, excluding promissory notes where a bank acts as the paying agent. The amendment took effect immediately.
Reported by: Stacy Lo / Ron Tsai
6.Draft Amendment to Offshore Banking Act
On 20 March 2025, the Executive passed the draft amendment to the Offshore Banking Act, which is subject to the review of the Legislative Yuan. The draft amended the implementation period for the exemption of Offshore Insurance Unit from profit-seeking enterprise income tax, business tax, stamp tax and withholding tax derived from offshore insurance business to be from 6 February 2015 to 31 December 2035.
Reported by: Stacy Lo/ Zoe Chen
SICE/SITE
7.Amendment to Article 9 of Standards for the Calculation of Securities Investment Trust Fund Asset Value
On 12 March 2025, the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association of the Republic of China (SITCA) announced an amendment to Article 9 of Standards for the Calculation of Securities Investment Trust Fund Asset Value to further add the notification and announcement procedure with respect to that if assets held by a target maturity bond fund become illiquid, difficult to sell, or hard to value due to financial sanctions, such as those imposed under the financial sanction regimes of the Group of Seven (G7) nations (including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union).
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Winnie Su
8.Amendments to “The Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association Guidelines for Advertisements and Business Activities Performed by Members and Their Sales Agents” and Regular Review and Evaluation Form for Collaboration with Influencers
On 17 March 2025, the SITCA issued an official letter to amend Item 6, Subparagraph 3, Paragraph 3, Article 8-5 of the Guidelines for Advertisements and Business Activities Performed by Members and Their Sales Agents and the Regular Review and Evaluation Form for Collaboration with Influencers, which requires contracts for collaboration with influencer shall explicitly state that where the paid advertisement is embedded in a video, it is required to make relevant disclosure to enable investors to clearly recognize it as an advertisement.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Jason Su
9.TDCC Responsible for Auditing Business, Financial Information, and Internal Audit Procedures of Securities Investment Trust Enterprises
On 19 March 2025, the FSC announced that it has delegated the audit of finance, business, and internal audit matters of securities investment trust enterprises to the Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC) with immediate effect. Relevant details are authorized to be further promulgated by the TDCC.
Reported by: Jeffrey Liu / Eden Hsieh
| Editors: Mike Lu (Partner) Stacy Lo (Partner) Jeffrey Liu (Partner) Kang-Shen Liu (Partner) David Tsai (Partner) Angela Lin (Partner) Paul Hsu (Partner) Alex Li (Partner) | Counselors: Echo Yeh Sue Su Jolene Wang (Lexcel Partners IP Firm) |
