(Taipei) The SFIPC, established in 2003, will mark its 10th anniversary this year. At the Chinese New Year press conference held on Feb. 10, the SFIPC expressed its sincere gratitude to securities firms, futures companies, and other securities-related institutions for their donations to the Center over the past ten years.

According to the “Securities Investor and Futures Traders Protection Act” (referred to as the Act), donators could stop making donations to the Center after they have made the contributions for ten years. While the SFIPC celebrated its 10th anniversaries, there are the securities firms and futures companies which have stopped their donations to the Center.

The fund under the SFIPC’s management currently stands at NT$6.9 billion. Over the past ten years, the SFIPC made appropriate management over the fund which has never seen decrease in value. The SFIPC provides protection to the investors and promotes market healthy development primarily with the accrued interest of the fund.

In addition to the supervision of competent authorities and the Center’s efforts, as the SFIPC noted, it’s also grateful to the securities firms, futures companies, and other securities-related institutions for their contributions to help the Center fulfill its missions for protecting the rights of securities investors and futures traders as well as promoting healthy development of the market.

Over the past ten years, the SFIPC has filed a total of 161 class-action lawsuits (including those commissioned by the Securities and Futures Institute) for over 103,000 persons and collected total compensation of over NT$41.8 billion. By the end of 2012, 38 of the cases have received completely or partially favorable judgments, with investors receiving over NT$14.3 billion from companies, guilty individuals, directors/supervisors and other civil defendants for their losses. In 22 of these cases, the judgments were finalized. The SFIPC has also help investors reach settlements with some of the criminal defendants, including company directors/supervisors, accountants, and underwriters. By the end of 2012, it has secured NT$2.059 billion in settlements, including the NT$515 million obtained in 2012 alone. The money has been distributed to investors and that will help build up their confidence on the market.
In cope with the increasing listing of overseas enterprises, the SFIPC made proper procedures for protection of the investors which make investments on these enterprises. In 2012, the Japan-based Elpida Memory, Inc.( abbreviated as Elpida Memory) entered the reorganization procedure and it led to the termination of its TDR listing. In order to protect the interests of investors, the SFIPC took investors’ applications, requiring Elpida Memory to follow its promise that it would purchase back its TDRs. Over 3,000 persons filed the applications to the SFIPC, with a total request amount equivalent to around 98.5% of the Elpida Memory TDR circulating in Taiwan upon the termination of its listing. The total money paid to them in this regard exceeded NT$371 million. In this case, the SFIPC accomplished its mission to help investors claim their rights.

Meanwhile, the SFIPC is also engaged in handling the cases where, in accordance with the Act, the SFIPC will file derivative lawsuit and discharge requests on behalf of companies. Over the past years, it has filed 18 derivative lawsuits and 8 discharge requests.
In case of any violation of shareholders’ rights in the matters with considerable effects on shareholders’ rights such as private placement, merger, capital decrease, assets disposal, reinvestments, large-sum endorsement, excessive loans, payouts for company directors/supervisors, and stock dividend distribution, the SFIPC sends letters to companies for explanations and dispatches staffs to attend their shareholders’ meeting to raise questions concerning these matters. In 2012, the SFIPC staff attended a total of 27 shareholders’ meetings in this regard and kept follow-up monitoring on company practices.

Looking forward, the SFIPC will keep raising the efficiency of its execution of complain-taking, mediations, class-action lawsuits, and other businesses. Besides its efforts to obtain compensation fund in the lawsuit cases, the SFIPC is also dedicated to the following major tasks: 1. Continue to handle those matters with serious effects on shareholders’ rights; 2. Hold seminars and contribute articles to printed media to arouse the public’s attention on risks associated with their investments; 3. Continue to support the competent authority in making amendments to the related laws and regulations; 4. Take initiative to propose protection measures for investors in new types of securities investment disputes.