Taiwan FSC Plans Third-Quarter Rollouts and Trials in Kaohsiung Asset Management Zone

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission is using a pilot zone in Kaohsiung to advance its Asian Asset Management Center initiative. The program allows banks, life insurers, investment trust and consulting firms, and securities companies to test innovative services aimed at wealthy clients. It is a key part of Taiwan’s effort to expand its asset-management industry, retain domestic wealth and attract more international capital.

The regulator said 59 financial institutions have received approval to enter the Kaohsiung zone, with the total expected to exceed 60 in 2026. Participating firms are expanding into family-office services, financing backed by portfolios of financial assets and technology-enabled private banking. The rush underscores intensifying competition for high-net-worth clients as Taiwan seeks to build a broader wealth-management hub.

Taiwan has sought to build an Asian asset-management hub since the 1990s, but earlier efforts were constrained by tax, foreign-exchange and geopolitical concerns. The Financial Supervisory Commission is now using a Kaohsiung pilot zone as a regulatory sandbox, linking wealth-management experiments with the island’s semiconductor, artificial-intelligence and manufacturing base. The strategy aims to channel domestic savings and overseas capital into local industries while testing services that Taiwanese clients have often obtained offshore.

At a July 8, 2026, asset-management forum, FSC Chairman Peng Jin-lung said tax incentives would help but were not essential, arguing that economic strength and phased experimentation offered Taiwan a route to compete with Singapore and Hong Kong. By end-June, 57 financial firms were testing 38 businesses in the zone; as of end-May, it served 4,999 high-net-worth clients with NT$602 billion in assets. Proposed legislation would integrate licenses, create an “inside the territory, outside the customs boundary” financial zone and establish an internationally aligned trust framework.

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission and the Kaohsiung City Government inaugurated the Kaohsiung Asset Management Special Zone on July 22, 2025, as the country's first pilot site for developing an Asian asset management hub. Institutions including Hua Nan Commercial Bank, Taipei Fubon Bank, First Securities Investment Trust and Nan Shan Life Insurance are piloting family-office, financial-asset portfolio financing and external asset manager services there, with the aim of retaining high-net-worth clients and their capital.

The FSC said on May 12, 2026, that the number of institutions approved to operate in the zone had risen from 50 at the outset to 56 as of the end of April. They comprised 21 banks, 16 securities investment trust and consulting firms, 13 brokerages and six insurers. As of the end of March, banks in the zone served 3,736 high-net-worth clients and had NT$455.9 billion in assets under management. They had recorded 2,314 cumulative credit drawdowns and provided family-office services to 139 families.

Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission is seeking to establish the country as an Asian asset-management hub, using a special zone in Kaohsiung as a pilot site for high-net-worth client management and financial-services innovation. The policy is important to retaining domestic capital, attracting international funds and strengthening Taiwan's wealth-management competitiveness. It will also lay the groundwork for dedicated legislation and regulatory changes.

The FSC plans to hold an event in late July marking the Kaohsiung special zone's first anniversary, where it will present preliminary plans for dedicated legislation governing the Asian asset-management hub and the results of its high-net-worth business trials. So far, 21 banks have been approved to offer related services, with assets under management reaching NT$2.4 trillion. Mature pilot programs will gradually be expanded across Taiwan.