NEWS
Taiwan’s FSC moves to improve offshore managers
31 January 2013
Category:
News, Global, Taiwan
By Hui Ching-hoo
Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has unveiled a scheme to encourage offshore asset managers to improve the quality of their products and services.
According to the FSC’s website, under the scheme, the regulator will grant any one of the following concessions to managers that commit to the scheme:
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A speeding up of their fund approval process,
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A relaxation of limits on the number of funds they can apply for,
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Permission for fund managers to introduce new fund products, and
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A loosening of restrictions on fund distribution.
The FSC notes that the initiative is intended to reinforce offshore fund managers’ services in order to boost the scale of the island’s fund industry.
Aberdeen International Securities Investment Consulting General Manager Martin Tan tells Asia Asset Management that the consultative paper was first published for discussion and further refining by the FSC to Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA) members in 2011.
“The essence of the initiative was to encourage foreign houses to invest more in Taiwan, and to help develop talent and skill by encouraging more local hiring and the transference of knowledge and know how, says Mr. Tan. “The FSC was hoping to introduce a points system whereby the more that fund managers contributed to the development of the local asset management industry, the more points they’d be awarded based on criteria set out by the FSC.”
However, he says he has reservations about the effectiveness of the system and its tracking mechanism: “The further tightening of policies by the FSC in December 2012 in regard to the registration and distribution of offshore funds from three to one contradicts their earlier initiative to encourage foreign houses to invest and contribute more to the development of Taiwan’s financial services industry.”
According to statistic from SITCA, the total AUM of Taiwan’s offshore fund grew to NT$2.44 trillion (US$866 billion) in November 2012 from NT$2.33 trillion in November 2010.
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