Government easing some limits on offshore investors

Taiwan plans to ease a limit on the number of investors permitted in offshore private-market funds by October, stepping up efforts to expand the wealth-management sector.

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is announcing the change for offshore private equity and private credit fund products sold in Taiwan’s dedicated wealth zone by the end of next month, FSC Chairman Peng Jin-lung (彭金隆) said at a press conference yesterday.

Such funds, which are distributed to Taiwanese investors through licensed banks or asset managers, are capped at 99 investors, each holding at least NT$30 million, about US$946,000, in assets.

A man walks past a board showing numbers of the TAIEX Index and other markets at the Taiwan Stock Exchange in Taipei on May 4.

Photo: AFP

Regulators would expand family-office advisory services and ease restrictions on select life insurance products sold in the wealth zone next month, Peng said.

The FSC is working to allow high-net-worth clients in the zone to invest in foreign crypto exchange-traded funds, he said.

The government is pushing to turn Taiwan into a regional wealth hub, capitalizing on surging private wealth and buoyant capital markets fueled by its technology champions.

Regulators have rolled out reforms across the financial sector, including creating a dedicated wealth-management zone to bolster private banking, easing financing limits for brokerages and steering billions of dollars of insurers’ capital back into domestic investments.

Separately, Taiwan is allowing banks to apply to pilot deposit token businesses using blockchain technology, as it seeks to keep pace with the global development of real-world asset tokenization, the FSC said in a statement.