Taipei, July 2, 2009 (CENS)--In line with the increasingly intensified cross-Taiwan Strait economic and financial exchanges, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has decided to allow local financial institutions to offer wealth-management services to Chinese mainlanders.

Initially, such services will be confined to time deposits, investment in trust funds and foreign exchanges, and purchase of insurance policies, with securities investments, such as stocks and mutual funds, pending further study.

An FSC official pointed out that the liberalization coincides with the allowance of Chinese investments in Taiwan and will be applicable to Chinese mainlanders with residential certificates on the island.

Kang Fan, wealth-management department manager of the Bank of Taiwan, pointed to the substantial wealth-management business potential for mainland Chinese clients, thanks to their accumulate fortunes and growing interest in wealth management service.

For the moment, Chinese mainlanders, though, are not allowed to engage in local securities investments, which are now confined to qualified domestic institutional investors (QDII), or take out wealth-management services at the offshore banking units of domestic banks.


(by Philip Liu)