Economics

Regulator Calls Himself Out Over Taiwan's Insurance Obsession

  • FSC chief urges savers to stop buying policies as investments
  • Taiwan’s insurers facing pressure from high-return contracts
Wellington KooPhotographer: Ashley Pon/Bloomberg
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Taiwan’s chief financial regulator is urging people to stop using life insurance as a way to make money and he points to his own family as part of the problem.

The widespread use of life insurance as a wealth-management product has made Taiwan into the most insured market in the world. But it has also created a level of competition and reckless offers that threaten the stability of an industry with $876 billion in assets, the Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo said in an interview Monday.