(Sept 22): 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 will announce the change for offshore private equity and private credit fund products sold in the island’s dedicated wealth zone by the end of next month, chairman Peng Jin-lung said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Under current rules, such funds, which are distributed to Taiwanese individual investors through licensed banks or asset managers, are capped at 99 investors, each holding at least NT$30 million (RM3.85 million) in assets.

Regulators will also expand family-office advisory services and ease restrictions on select life insurance products sold in the wealth zone next month, according to Peng. It’s also working to allow high-net-worth clients in the zone to invest in foreign crypto exchange-traded funds. 

The Taiwanese government is pushing to turn the island into a regional wealth hub, capitalising 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 will also allow banks to apply to pilot deposit token businesses using blockchain technology, as the island seeks to keep pace with the global development of real-world asset tokenisation, according to a statement.

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