Relaxed financial policies to come: FSC

The FSC does not exclude the possibility of announcing new, liberalized financial measures, including opening reciprocal stock market listings of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) between Taiwan and Hong Kong, in one or two weeks if the FSC arrives at agreements with other relevant government agencies, said FSC Vice Chairwoman Susan Chang during a report at the Legislative Yuan.

Other stimulus policies are expected to include the cancellation of a regulation that requires in-bound funds that are set to be channeled into the Taiwan bourse to contain no funds from China and the lifting of a ceiling on Taiwan funds investing in stock markets in China, Hong Kong and Macau, Chang said.

FSC officials are expected to talk with their counterparts from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) on the possibility of allowing Taiwan stocks and securities firms to invest indirectly in their Chinese counterparts.

“The relaxed policies are expected to be announced as soon as the FSC reaches agreements with the MAC and CEPD on the plans,” Chang reiterated.

The FSC announced a previous round of liberalized financial policies in mid-March when the then-Democratic Progressive Party administration agreed to allow overseas subsidiaries of Taiwanese banks to invest in lenders in China in an effort “to boost the global competitiveness of Taiwan’s financial sector and strengthen the financial services it offers to China-based Taiwanese businessmen.”

Some critics believe those liberalized policies — announced only days ahead of the March 22 presidential election — were merely a political gambit targeting the hundreds of thousands of businessmen and their families living in China who were expected to return to Taiwan to vote in the election.

By comparison, the new round of relaxed financial policies laid out by Chang were made in response to an outcry over the falling TAIEX, which has shed more than 1,100 points, or 12 percent in value, over the past one month since the May 20 inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou.

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