Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Monday the interest rate futures market will formally open soon to help corporations and individual citizens hedge against interest rate fluctuations.
Chen made the remarks in a keynote speech delivered at the opening of a seminar on Taiwan's financial service market development sponsored by the Taiwan Thinktank.
In his keynote speech, President Chen said his administration is studying the feasibility of enacting an integrated financial service law in line with the general world trend of implementing an integrated taxation system on all financial transactions.
Over the past three years, Chen said his administration has adopted a series of steps to further liberalize Taiwan's financial market while streamlining supervision of financial institutions, particularly the poorly managed ones.
The newly enacted or updated financial statutes include the trust business law, the financial assets securitization law, the real estate securitization law, the financial holding corporate law, and the financial institution merger and acquisition law, Chen said, adding that all these legislation efforts have helped expand financial service frontiers.
In this past June, Chen said, the government further legalized Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) operations and simplified applications for marketing new derivatives or other financial products. The government also scrapped the QFII system last month to allow more foreign financial institutions to invest in Taiwan's securities market.
Meanwhile, Chen said, his administration has also spared no efforts in maintaining financial market order by integrating all supervisory units, pushing banks to lower their non-performing loan ratios and encouraging bank mergers to enhance operational efficiency.
Moreover, he said, the Ministry of Justice has formed a special task force to speed up investigations of major financial crimes and irregularities.