Author: Marcel Woo

Ma Junshuou has been named the new CEO of TransGlobe Life Insurance (TLI), the seventh largest insurer in Taiwan that provides life insurance products and financial services. Ma is now CEO-in-waiting, replacing the outgoing president and CEO Nicholas Chang. Ma, former general manager and CEO of Chinese insurer Aegon-CNOOC, will take over Chang, who is due for retirement in April this year following the approval from the firm’s board of directors. Chang will remain as consultant of Transglobe. The board of directors also agreed to name Ma as its new CEO, subject to the approval of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission,…

Allianz SE, a German multinational financial services company that focuses on insurance, said it is ready to support Germanwings as fully and as quickly as possible after it confirmed that it is the lead insurance underwriter of the plane that crashed in the French Alps. Allianz said it will work in conjunction with its co-insurers – AIG, which had an underwriting element involved, and JLT and Willis, who were joint brokers on the insurance placement. “We are ready to support our client as fully and quickly as possible, working in conjunction with our co-insurers,” Allianz said. Reuters reported that the…

The official Chinese currency, the yuan, now has a clearing bank in Canada. ICBC Canada was launched on 23 March in the north-American country, the first such yuan-trading center in the western hemisphere. The center is the latest development in the Chinese-Canadian socio-economic link now worth an estimated USD78bn. Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver launched the yuan-clearing bank in Toronto with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China hosting the event. Several countries around the world have expressed interest to establish yuan-clearing centers as the Chinese currency’s popularity continues to rise globally.

The local government of Shanghai is considering raising the housing loan cap to Rmb700,000 (USD112,000) from Rmb400,000 (USD64,000). Shanghai said it plans to raise the ceiling for housing loans under its provident fund by as much as 75% to help low and mid-income residents improve their housing conditions. Shanghai’s move also comes at a time that property sales in the country have dropped by the most in three years due to a glut of housing supply. China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has been calling on local governments to make good use of the housing fund to help their…

China’s largest insurer, China Life Insurance Co Ltd, just got even bigger after it reported a 30% rise in annual net profit to Rmb32.2bn (USD5.19bn) in 2014. The company attributed its annual net profit rise to gains in its investment portfolio, especially its investment in China’s booming stock markets. China Life’s net profit in 2014, which was higher from Rmb24.77bn (USD3.99bn), was in line with the average forecast of Rmb32.7bn (USD5.26bn) from analysts. China Life also said that it has increased the number of its agents by 13% to a total of 743,000 by the end of last year. China’s…

Hanergy, the maker of thin-film solar power equipment, has opened 60 retail and user-experience stores in China on the third week of March to boost its brand and sales among retail customers. The company opened stores in regions including Shanghai and Guangzhou, with a flagship outlet in Chengdu. The stores partly highlight rooftop solar panels that Hanergy hopes will become a main source of future revenue. Hanergy said it plans to increase the number of user experience centers to 300 throughout China this year and to 1,500 worldwide by 2017. It is thought the shops will be used to market…

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the current reforms being implemented in India will propel the country’s economy to 7.8 percent in 2015 and 8.2 percent in 2016, overtaking China’s position as the world’s fastest-growing economy. The Manila-based lender said India’s new investment laws, which include cutting red tape, will help boost its economy while China’s growth is poised to cool from 7.4 percent last year to 7.2 percent this year and 7.0 percent in 2016, as Chinese authorities make reforms in the face of a property downturn, factory overcapacity, and rising local debt. It was not the first time…