Taiwan’s financial regulator has approved the merger of Shin Kong Life Insurance Co with the smaller Taishin Life Insurance Co, reinforcing the former’s rank as the fourth largest life insurer on the island with NT$3.96 trillion (US$126 billion) of combined assets.
The green light comes after their parent companies Taishin Financial Holding Co and Shin Kong Financial Holding Co merged in July to form TS Financial Holding Co.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced the go-ahead for the insurance firms to combine in a statement posted on its website on November 25.
The regulator says the merger will be effective on January 1 and that the merged firm will retain the name of Shin Kong Life, which currently has NT$3.6 trillion of assets.
Taishin Life is ten times smaller with almost NT$360 billion of assets and is ranked 16th out of Taiwan’s 21 life insurers.
