(1) All of our insurers have established related contingency mechanisms such as remote working and Business Continuity Management (BCM). As of March 24, all of the insurers have already started working offsite or working from home to reduce contagion risk and ensure continued operations.

(2) To avoid cross infection within the company and cause operation interruption, the FSC has required all insurers to start the precautionary measures for epidemic of COVID-19, and all of the insurers’ general managers to oversee the precautionary measure within their companies. The FSC also urged insurers to prohibit their staffs from unnecessary overseas travel. In addition, insurers have to report to the FSC immediately when their staffs need to be quarantined.

(3) To avoid hackers attacking the loopholes of information systems arising from the arrangements of remote working, the FSC has required all insurers to strengthen their information security management mechanisms especially during this period.

 

 

2. Insurance liabilities / insurance cover

(1) In terms of premiums, the face-to-face marketing might be blocked by epidemic of COVID-19. However, it might raise the insurance awareness of the general public and increase the sales of online insurance.

(2) To meet the need of consumers in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the FSC also take the following measures:

i. The FSC has approved the amendment related regulation to enable insurers to launch medical insurance products to the market more quickly.

ii. The FSC has required insurers to take contingency measures to enhance customer service, including deferral payment of insurance renewal premium, extension of insurance policy loan interest and a single contact person to deal with the service for the epidemic.

 

 

3. Assets / investment portfolio

(1) The impact of the epidemic on the overall economy have been reflected mainly in the stock, fixed income and foreign exchange markets, which has caused significant loss to their investment portfolio value for many of our insurers. Scenario analysis including the past SARS event and other potential situations with regard to the global and domestic financial market changes have been conducted by the FSC to well prepare the comprehensive measures in need.

(2) To reducing the negative impact on insurers investment portfolio from volatility of stock market and to maintain the stability of insurers’ capital needs, The countercyclical measure has been effective on 1 January 2019. The primary objective of the countercyclical measure is to automatically adjust the equity risk factors in response to the stock market, which would be lower when market index drops and higher when market index goes up.

 

 

4. Liquidity

(1) The number of confirmed diagnoses and deaths in Taiwan is still under control, and it will not have a significant impact on the increased insurance claims. As of March 18, 2020, the total number of claims was 2,773 (mostly are travel inconvenience insurance), and the total amount of claims was around NT $ 24.36 million.

(2) The FSC requires insurers to report the numbers of dead policyholders and claims result from epidemic of COVID-19 weekly.

Currently, the risk of the insurance industry is still manageable. The FSC continues reviewing our insurer’s financial and business condition and take necessary measures to ensure the safety and soundness of our insurance industry.

 

 

5. To avoid the cross infection within the FSC to cause operation interruption, the FSC has established related contingency measures including working offsite, prohibit staffs from unnecessary overseas travel to reduce contagion risk and ensure workplace safety.

 

6. The FSC has set up an Emergency Response Team (ERT) to hold meetings regularly to closely monitor the impact in our insurance market, oversee the implementation of precautionary measures by our insurance industry to safeguard the stability of our financial markets.