1.    FSC Amends the Regulations Governing Securities Firms Accepting Orders to Trade Foreign Securities
To avoid using age as a regulatory criterion, which may lead to concerns about age-group labeling, and to facilitate securities firms in expanding customer reach, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on 5 June 2025 issued amendments to Articles 14 and 23 of the Regulations Governing Securities Firms Accepting Orders to Trade Foreign Securities. The amendments remove the age limit of 70 or below for a securities firm recommending foreign securities to non-professional investors in its brokering trading business, and also allow foreign securities purchased by securities firms on order from high-net-worth juristic person investors and high-asset juristic person customers to be deposited in the custody of a foreign depositary designated by the principal.
2.    FSC Issues Three Interpretive Orders Relating to Securities Firms’ Business Activities in Alignment with Its 25 December 2024 Amendment to the Regulations Governing Securities Investment Trust Funds
On 25 December 2024, the FSC amended the Regulations Governing Securities Investment Trust Funds to open up active exchange-traded funds (active ETFs). Activ ETFs and passive exchange-traded funds (passive ETFs) are both types of exchange-traded fund products. On 19 June 2025, the FSC issued three interpretive orders under the numbers of Financial-Supervisory-Securities-Firms-1140381707, 11403817071, and 11403817072. As with the current regulatory framework for passive ETFs, these orders add provisions to exempt securities dealers engaging in domestic trading, arbitrage, and risk-hedging activities with respect to active ETFs, as well as participating dealers (in the capacity of dealing for their own account) and overseas compatriots and foreign nationals engaging in arbitrage trading of active ETFs through in-kind creations and redemptions and after-cash-creation sale on the secondary market, from the restrictions set out in Article 32, paragraph 1 of the Regulations Governing Securities Firms and Article 21, subparagraph 2 of the Regulations Governing Investment in Securities by Overseas Compatriots and Foreign Nationals, which otherwise prohibit them from selling or giving a sell quote for securities not held by them. The orders also exempt securities firms that serve as liquidity providers for active ETFs and assume obligations to quote for, buy, and sell these active ETFs or engage in creation, redemption, or relevant risk-hedging activities with respect to active ETF beneficial certificates, from the restrictions set out in Article 31, paragraph 1 and Article 36-1, paragraph 2 of the Regulations Governing Securities Firms, which otherwise require them to perform relevant investment procedures and prohibit them from engaging in relevant trading within 2 hours of market opening after the issuance of research reports by their consulting departments.