These Regulations are adopted pursuant to Article 163-1 of the Insurance Act.

The terms used in these Regulations are defined as follows:
1.“Insurance agent/broker company” means a company operating insurance agent or broker business in the capacity of a corporate organization or a bank engaging concurrently in insurance agent or broker business with approval from the competent authority.
2.“Online insurance business” means the business entailing a natural person applicant enters or negotiates an insurance contract with an insurance company via the Internet through an insurance agent/broker company after completing the first-time registration and identity verification process.
3.“Online insurance services” means insurance services of an insurance company other than purchasing insurance online received by existing customers of an insurance agent/broker company via the Internet through the agent/broker company which is linked up with the system of the insurance company after the customer has completed the registration and identity verification process.
4. “Major sanctions and penalties” means major sanctions and penalties specified in Article 2 of the Regulations Governing Public Disclosure by the Financial Supervisory Commission of Material Enforcement Actions for Violations of Financial Legislation.

An insurance agent/broker company that conducts online insurance business and online insurance services shall set up a website section or webpage or build a mobile insurance application (APP) as a service platform, and its insurance agents, brokers and solicitors who perform business solicitation may not set up their own service platform.
When an insurance agent/broker company cooperates with a business in a different industry (referred to as “cross-industry partner” hereunder) in the offering of online insurance business and online insurance services in accordance with the Directions for Promoting Insurance Service Business Through Collaboration with Business Entities in Other Industries, the insurance agent/broker company shall be responsible for managing, maintaining, and disclosing related information on the website section, webpage or mobile insurance application (APP) built by its cross-industry partner.

When conducting online insurance business, an insurance agent/broker company should make sure that the insurance company it works for as an agent or cooperates with will reflect the costs saved therefrom in the surcharges for the insurance product.

An insurance agent/broker company that applies for approval to conduct online insurance business shall meet the following qualification requirements:
1.The company has established and implemented internal control and audit system as well as solicitation system and procedures in accordance with the Regulations Governing the Implementation of Internal Control and Audit System and Business Solicitation System of Insurance Agent Companies and Insurance Broker Companies.
2.The company has not been subject to major sanctions and penalties imposed by the competent authority in the most recent year, or if it has, concrete improvement actions have been taken to remedy the violation and recognized by the competent authority.
3.The company can present its annual financial statements that have been audited and certified by a certified public accountant. The preceding provision does not apply to recently established internet-only banks that are unable to present annual financial statements.
4.The company is ISO 27001 (information security standards) certified and has established a traffic cleaning mechanism against distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS).
When an internet-only bank applies for approval to conduct online insurance business, if the time elapsed from the date it starts business to the date of application is shorter than the time period specified in Subparagraph 2 of the preceding paragraph, the duration during which the bank has been in business shall apply.

An insurance agent/broker company that currently conducts online insurance business on behalf of/with an insurance company may provide its existing customers online insurance services associated with the insurance contracts the agent/broker company sells for/negotiates with the insurance company. The specifics of the online insurance services will be prescribed separately by the competent authority.

An insurance agent/broker company that conducts online insurance business and online insurance services shall confirm that the insurance company that it works for as an agent or cooperates with has taken actions in accordance with the Directions for Insurance Enterprises Conducting Electronic Commerce (referred to as the “E-Commerce Directions” hereunder).
The types and scope of insurance products that an insurance agent/broker company may include in its online insurance business shall be limited to the types and scope of insurance products that the insurance company it works for as an agent or cooperates with may sell online.

An insurance agent/broker company that conducts online insurance business or online insurance services shall provide one of the means below for customers with legal capacity to carry out registration and identity verification, and may not allow a customer to purchase insurance online or receive online insurance services until the customer has completed the registration and identity verification process:
1.Online:
(1)The legally required information that should be posted on the website section, webpage or mobile insurance app built by an insurance agent/broker company or its cross-industry partner includes but is not limited to declaration of consent to online insurance purchase or online insurance services and disclosure obligation pursuant to the Personal Information Protection Act (referred to as the “Personal Information Act”) for perusal by the customers, and may not proceed with the registration and identity verification until the customer has indicated that he/she has read the disclosure and consented to online insurance purchase or online insurance services.
(2)When a customer undergoes registration and identity verification, the customer should be required to fill out basic information that is sufficient to verify his/her identity and given an account number through the identity verification process. However, with customer consent, an agent/broker company may carry out customer registration and identity verification through the customer’s online banking account (only if the account is opened by customer at the bank counter in person) or digital deposit account (only if the account is a type 1 account that applies to high-risk electronic transfer of funds and transaction instruction).
(3)After a customer has completed the registration and identity verification process, the insurance agent/broker company should verify the customer’s identity by means of one-time password (OTP), mobile ID or Fido (Fast Identity Online) and guide the customer to complete identity confirmation.
2. In person:
(1)A customer may visit the business place of an insurance agent/broker company or its branches in person to apply for online insurance or service.
(2)The insurance agent/broker company should provide the customer with legally required information in writing or in another verifiable manner, including but not limited to declaration of consent to online insurance purchase or online insurance services and disclosure obligation pursuant to the Personal Information Act for perusal and signing by the customers to complete the registration and identity verification process.
(3)The customer should provide basic personal data that is sufficient to verify his/her identity.
For a customer who has completed the identity verification process under the preceding paragraph and obtained the account password but has not negotiated any insurance contract with or requested insurance service from an insurance company through the insurance agent/broker company in five (5) years after completing the application, the customer may not use the account password to purchase insurance online or request online insurance service until he/she completes the identity verification process under the preceding paragraph again.
An insurance agent/broker company that conducts online insurance business and carries out registration and identity verification using methods described in Subparagraph 1 of Paragraph 1 hereof may, with customer consent, also use the member account of the cross-industry partner.

For an insurance agent/broker company that adopts an automated check system for its online insurance business, it will, with the confirmation or consent of the insurance company that it works for as an agent or cooperates with, set up the conditions, scope and check contents of the automated check system and internal audit method therefor.
Before adopting an automated check system the first time, an insurance agent/broker company should take the following actions and hold an online insurance meeting to confirm the following operations, and produce minutes on the contents and results of the meeting that will be submitted to the company president for review and approval and saved for future examination by the competent authority:
1. Inspect whether the contents of products available online are consistent with the policy clauses.
2. Establish a mechanism for understanding the needs of applicants and product or service suitability.
3. Examine whether the check operation complies with applicable regulations and consumer protection regulations.
After adopting an automated check system, an insurance agent/broker company shall take actions in accordance with the preceding paragraph at least once every quarter or whenever there is an amendment of online insurance related regulations or an increase of product types.

An insurance agent/broker company that conducts online insurance business shall comply with the following:
(1)The insurance agent/broker company should provide on its website section, webpage or mobile insurance app or those built by its cross-industry partner a description of all insurance products that may be purchased online and the policy clauses for browsing by consumers at any time.
(2)After a consumer has entered application data and selected the insurance product to be purchased, the insurance agent/broker company should prompt on its website section, webpage or mobile insurance app or those built by its cross-industry partner the full text of insurance policy and important content of the insurance product selected for perusal and agreement by the consumer.
(3)Purchase and identity verification operation: Before the applicant sends the purchase confirmation, the insurance agent/broker company should verify the applicant’s identity by means of one-time password (OTP), mobile ID or Fido (Fast Identity Online) and guide the applicant to complete identity confirmation before completing the whole purchase operation.
(4)When an insurance agent/broker company handles the online purchase of a personal insurance product where the applicant and the insured are not the same person and the applicant registers with his/her Citizen Digital Certificate, the insured shall declare his/her intent (consent) using the Citizen Digital Certificate only. The insurance agent/broker company shall also post on its website section, webpage or mobile insurance app or those built by its cross-industry partner in a conspicuous manner a reminder that the relationship between the applicant and the insured must comply with Article 16 of the Insurance Act.
For personal insurance products that are investment-linked annuities, an insurance agent/broker company shall implement the following controls and support operations on its website section, webpage or mobile insurance app:
1.Prompt and inform product features and associated risks; in addition, when a consumer applies to purchase such a product, confirm consumer’s understanding of associated risks and consumer’s intent to purchase the product.
2.Disclose the entire product content, including but not limited to the following:
(1)Operating process for the use of premiums.
(2)Policy benefits.
(3)Brief introduction of targeted investment.
(4)Policy related expenses.
(5)Underwriting rules (age and premium limits, etc.)
(6)Sales documents (policy clauses and product description) download link.
(7)Investment related risks.
(8)Reminder about the different time points of premium payment and actual investment.
3.Confirm in the application process that the policyholder has fully read important sales documents (e.g. policy clauses and product description) and confirm item-by-item that the policyholder understands the important contents of product and investment risks.
4.Clearly disclose various operating processes. Those operations include but are not limited to the following:
(1)Payment of premiums.
(2)Underwriting.
(3)Phone interview.
(4)Policy issue.
(5)Refund of premiums in case of underwriting denial or contract cancellation.
5.Make sure the applicant has given consent to the manner by which the underwriting insurance company will deliver product description and insurance policy in hardcopy or electronic form to the applicant according to applicant’s instruction, and make sure there are no situations of the applicant being enticed into doing something. If it is agreed with the policyholder that the insurance policy will be provided in electronic form, make sure the underwriting insurance company has established an assistance mechanism that reminds policyholder to read or download and sign for the receipt of policy if the policyholder fails to do so within a certain period of time and a response mechanism, and would save the record of policyholder perusing or downloading and signing for the receipt of policy and relevant trail.
6.Immediately forward any notification information to the underwriting insurance company via linkup.
The disclosure of operating processes mentioned in Subparagraph 4 of the preceding paragraph must be complemented with a timeline that shows the time of each operation. In addition, the difference between the time points of premium payment and actual investment should be clearly revealed to the policyholder.
The response mechanism mentioned in Subparagraph 5 of Paragraph 2 hereof means when a policyholder fails to read or download and sign for the receipt of policy within 30 days after the insurance company has delivered the policy, the insurance company should send a hardcopy of the policy to the policyholder for policyholder to read, review and sign for its receipt.
For traditional individual life insurance products, an insurance agent/broker company should provide the consumers with a free look period as agreed in the insurance contract.

For its online insurance business, an insurance agent/broker should send relevant information to the insurance company in real-time by linking up with the system of the insurance company.

For online purchase of insurance, an insurance agent/broker company should ask the applicant to make payment to the insurance company and ascertain that the payment operation and supplementary identity verification mechanism of the insurance company that it works for as an agent or cooperates with observe the provisions of the E-Commerce Directions.

To confirm the intent of an applicant to purchase insurance online, except for applicants who purchase compulsory automobile liability insurance, travel accident insurance, comprehensive travel insurance, mountaineering comprehensive insurance, or maritime activities comprehensive insurance singly and for existing policyholders of non-life insurance who have completed the application procedure online before the existing policy expires and insurance company and the coverage and the insured amount are the same as the previous year, an insurance agent/broker company should perform the following confirmation procedure before the insurance company mails the insurance policy to the applicant:
(1) For applicants who negotiate an insurance contract with an insurance company through the insurance agent/broker company the first time but do not apply for account password using the digital certificate or in person, the insurance agent/broker company should sample 10% of such applicants for phone interview to confirm their intent to purchase insurance.
(2) For online purchase cases not under the preceding subparagraph, the insurance agent/broker company should sample 5% of the applicants for phone interview to confirm their intent to purchase insurance.
(3) Phone interview shall be conducted for all online applications to purchase investment-linked annuity insurance so as to ensure that the applicant understands clearly the content and the risks of investment-linked annuity and confirm applicant’s intent to purchase the product.
If it is confirmed in the phone interview under Subparagraph 1 and Subparagraph 2 of the preceding paragraph that an applicant does not intend to purchase insurance, the insurance agent/broker company shall immediately inform the insurance company not to underwrite a policy. Where the phone interview under Subparagraph 3 of the preceding paragraph fails to take place, the insurance agent/broker company should notify the insurance company immediately.
For the phone interview under Paragraph 1 hereof, the insurance agent/broker company should, with applicant’s consent, tape record the entire interview process and save a copy of the tape. If the applicant has speech or hearing impairment, the insurance agent/broker company may use text messaging, email or other viable methods to confirm the applicant’s intent to purchase insurance.

Rewards and disciplines for insurance agent/broker companies that meet the following key indicators for differentiated management are as follows:
1. An insurance agent/broker company that meets all positive indicators below may increase the insured amount of its online insurance business by 25% and decrease the phone interview sampling set out in Subparagraph 1, Paragraph 1 of the preceding article by one half:
(1) The company has not, in the past one year, violated any online insurance related regulations and has not been subject to major sanctions and penalties imposed by the competent authority in connection with its insurance broker or agent business, or if it has, concrete improvement actions have been taken to remedy the violation and recognized by the competent authority.
(2) The company’s online insurance information security management system has been validated by a relevant impartial organization.
(3) The company’s personal data management system for online insurance has been implemented by a relevant impartial organization.
2. An insurance agent/broker company that has, in the past one year, violated any online insurance related regulations or has been subject to major sanctions and penalties imposed by the competent authority in connection with its insurance broker or agent business shall decrease the insured amount of its online insurance business by 25% and increase the phone interview sampling set out in Subparagraph 1, Paragraph 1 of the preceding article by one half:
The insured amount of online insurance business after the increase under the preceding paragraph may not exceed the insured amount of the insurance company’s online insurance business.

The online insurance business of an insurance agent/broker company may not accept retrospective insurance cases.

An insurance agent/broker company shall save a backup copy of the electronic record on consumer’s selection or consent.
The retention period for the backup copy mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall not be less than five (5) years after the insurance contract has expired or after the insurance company has notified the applicant of its decision not to underwrite the insurance.

An insurance agent/broker company that conducts online insurance business and online insurance services should include compliance with these Regulations in its internal business solicitation systems and procedures, and into its internal controls and audit, and perform internal audit and self-inspection. If an insurance agent/broker company violates any provision of these Regulations, the competent authority may, in view of the severity of violation, take appropriate disciplinary actions in accordance with the Insurance Act and other applicable regulations.

These Regulations shall enter into force on the date of promulgation.