Taiwan Post to halt savings from private corporations

The company’s savings and remittance director Chou Ruei-yun said that Article 1 of the Postal Savings and Remittance Act clearly indicates that postal savings accounts were created to encourage personal savings.

Taiwan Post’s savings and remittance director, Chou Ruei-yun, said that ‘Article 1’ of the Postal Savings and Remittance Act clearly indicates that postal savings accounts were created to encourage personal savings.

“It then becomes inappropriate for the post office to allow private corporations to save in postal savings accounts, because by law corporations are defined as business juridical persons and are not considered individuals,” she said.

Meanwhile, corporations that already have post office savings accounts are asked to withdraw the money and close their accounts as soon as possible.

Taiwan Post reiterated its policy after a story published by the Chinese-language United Daily News in March, saying that it would no longer accept savings from corporations for fear of violating the Postal Savings and Remittance Act.

The post office has approximately NT$460bn ($13bn) in its postal savings accounts, making it the largest savings institution in the nation.

While many banks have lowered their one-month fixed rates to 0.1%, or even lower, a postal savings account offers a one-month fixed interest rate of 0.29%.

By law, the post office cannot give loans to individuals or corporations, and about half of the funds in its postal savings accounts must be saved at the Central Bank.