Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has broadened the scope for life insurers’ investments in local infrastructures, a move that aims to facilitate insurance investments in domestic markets.
The financial regulator’s revision of the regulations for the investment management of insurance industry will allow life insurers to invest in a wider range of public infrastructure projects such as hospitals, data centres, art museums, and logistics facilities.
Life insurers can allocate to such infrastructures through direct investments or private equity funds, the FSC says in a statement on March 25.
They can also invest in social welfare projects or those with environmental, social and governance targets through the National Development Fund, a NT$100 billion (US$3.02 billion) fund that aims to promote the island’s private sector investment, or act as a lender to provide financing for ESG infrastructure projects.
“The life insurance sector is facing asset-liability mismatch issues, and expanding long-term investments is a significant solution,” the FSC adds. “Now is the best time to guide life insurance funds back into domestic market.”
As of December 2024, Taiwanese life insurers’ investments in public infrastructure was only around NT$532 billion. This fell significantly short of the regulatory upper limit of 10% of their total assets, which was around NT$33 trillion at end-2024.
