Amendments to the Notice for Telemarketing Business Handled by Insurers, Insurance Agency Companies and Insurance Broker Companies (Taiwan)

2019.2.11
Grace Chiang

The Financial Supervisory Commission amended the Notice for Telemarketing Business Handled by Insurers and renamed it as the Notice for Telemarketing Business Handled by Insurers, Insurance Agency Companies and Insurance Broker Companies (hereinafter, the “Notice”), which came into effect on the day of its promulgation.  The amendments are highlighted below:

1. Insurance agency companies, insurance broker companies and internal insurance broker or agency departments of banks (hereinafter, the “Insurance Brokers or Agencies”) are all included in the Notice (Point 3 of the Notice).

2. When conducting telemarketing business, insurers, and Insurance Brokers or Agents shall set up a telemarketing center (Point 4 of the Notice). In addition, telemarketing personnel shall explain to the consumers that if they indicate their refusal to the marketing pitch, the telemarketing personnel shall stop the telemarketing immediately (Point 5 of the Notice).

3. When telemarketing traditional life insurance, life insurers, Insurance Brokers or Agencies shall provide the insurance policy terms to the applicants by fax, mail, the Internet or email, and shall provide at least a three-day “review period” to the proposers. If the proposers do not complete the review, no insurance contract may be executed.  There are two ways to ensure that a proposer has completed the review of an insurance policy: (1) the proposer signs his/her name in the contractual provisions or in a statement; or (2) the insurer, Insurance Broker or Agency calls the proposer to confirm the completion, and the call should be audio recorded.  (Point 9 of the Notice)

The entire telemarketing process engaged by an insurer, Insurance Broker or Agency shall be audio recorded as consented by the proposer with the recording backed up and archived.  The recordings shall be retained at least five years after the insurance contract expires or the insurer notifies the proposer of its refusal to underwrite the insurance.  All companies shall set up relevant personnel to regularly review telephone recordings to confirm if there is any violation of laws or regulations.  The recordings shall include details such as the identification information about the proposers, confirmation of their willingness to obtain insurance, scope of coverage, benefit items, information about the beneficiaries, term of insurance, insured amount, payment methods, premiums, and effective date of the insurance contract.  In case of any dispute between an proposer and an insurer or Insurance Broker or Agency due to telemarketing, the proposer has the right to request a copy of the audio recording, which the insurer or Insurance Broker or Agency shall not refuse (Points 10 and 11 of the Notice).