萬國法律事務所

The Finance Committee of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan recently passed a draft of revisions to the Insurance Act that will penalize those insurance agents and brokers who promote unapproved foreign insurance policies. One legislator indicated that under the current Insurance Act, promoting foreign insurance policies that have not been approved by the Financial Supervisory Commission only subjects an insurance agent to a fine in an amount of between NT$ 900,000 to NT$ 4,500,000, which has apparently little deterrence effect. In fact, more than 80% of the 40 newly founded insurance brokers sell only unapproved foreign insurance policies.

These foreign insurance policies are mainly of the for-profit and investment-linked types of insurance and these insurance companies use the low insurance premiums and high annual returns to attract customers.

The draft revisions would increase the penalties for selling unapproved foreign insurance policies. Under the draft, a person who sells such insurance policies illegally will be subject to no more the three years imprisonment and may be fined an amount between NT$ 3,000,000 to NT$ 20,000,000. If the revenue received from the illegal activities exceeds NT$ 20,000,000, he/she will be imprisoned for as long as 5 years and may be fined an amount between NT$ 5,000,000 to NT$ 25,000,000.