The FSC amended the aforementioned Regulations on March 30, 2020 in order to: (a) ensure the sound development of insurance firms; (b) encourage insurers to actively develop protection-type and elderly-oriented insurance products as well as policies suited to the needs of an aging society; and (c) accelerate the innovation of new-type insurance products. Key points of the amended Regulations are as follows:

1.For products subject to prior approval procedures that have been rejected by the competent authority and re-submitted for product review within 30 working days of the rejection date, newly added provisions require quicker approval or rejection. And in order to expedite the launch of new insurance products, the amended provisions further specify that if an insurance product submitted for approval pursuant to Paragraph 2 or 3 of Article 15 of the Regulation has already been rejected three times, the competent authority may reject the product outright without proceeding a review.

2.Insurers that rank among the top 20% of the industry in terms of higher percentage of new-policy premium income generated by protection-type and elderly-oriented insurance products in the past year may apply with the competent authority to request that the authority employ use-and-file procedures to products that would normally be subject to prior approval procedures.

3.To reward insurers that perform up to a certain standard in carrying out the Program for Improving Insurance Protection for the People, in conducting microinsurance business, and in supporting the government''s effort to encourage life insurers to invest in the “5+2” key innovative industries and public infrastructure projects, the insurers may apply with the competent authority each year before the end of March to request that the authority employ use-and-file procedures to a certain number of products that would normally be subject to prior approval procedures.

4.For insurers that rank among the bottom 5% of the industry in terms of lower percentage of new-policy premium income generated by protection-type and elderly-oriented insurance products, and for which the aforementioned percentage has declined from the previous year, the FSC may switch to prior approval procedures for the reviewing of products that would normally be subject to use-and-file procedures.