Helping Children Grow Healthily and Safely

Cathay utilized its core competencies in finance to promote sustainability issues on campus and provide students with greater insurance for risks, in order to help the next generation in Taiwan grow healthily.

By Game-based Anti-drug Campaign, Children Can Recognize and Say “No” to Drugs

Cathay Life has begun providing student group insurance with approximately NT$3 trillion total insured amount, since 2017 academic year. Not only protecting the safety of 3 million children, but Cathay Life jointly implemented the Sustainable Campus Project with the K-12 Education Administration. Cathay Life has focused on anti-drug from the 2019 academic year, and has worked together with the game-based learning platform PaGamO. With 6,000 service personnel for student group insurance around Taiwan, Cathay Life changed the conventional approach, launching a game-based anti-drug campaign for children to gain knowledge and become more motivated to learn through promoted games.

The use of digital tools not only increases students' learning motivation, but also eliminates the spatial constraints of the anti-drug campaign. By adopting strategies of online and offline, we increased the depth and breadth of the anti-drug campaign in a fun and effective way.

PaGamO Online Anti-Drug Mission

The anti-drug questions are incorporated in the learning platform, PaGamO, for students to accumulate relative knowledge by answering questions online.

Volunteers go on campus and organize small anti-drug gaming competitions

Cathay volunteers organized small gaming competitions in classes around Taiwan. The competition applies the gaming mechanism of capturing territories to encourage students to actively participate in and increase the rate of correct answers for gaining knowledge positively.

Cathay National Anti-drug Gaming Competition

Cathay combined its forces in organizing the "2020 Cathay National Anti-drug Gaming Competition," which attracted teams from 22 counties and cities around Taiwan. Participants actively reviewed the anti-drug questions and discussed anti-drug issues with team members, teachers, and their parents, which can increased their anti-drug knowledge.

The anti-drug campaign on campus has reached 22 counties and cities with approximately 365,000 participants online and offline since it was launched in 2017, and teacher satisfaction exceeded 99%. As such, the campaign won the Special Award of Buying Power.

Risk Prevention Education for All Ages Effectively Decreases the Traffic Accident Rate

Cathay Century is exerting every effort in risk prevention education with the vision of "comprehensive identification of risks for all ages," and is actively working together with industry-government-university. We provide the traffic safety courses using VR and AR technologies for all students. A total of 138 Accident-Free Riders and Accident-free Bicycles events were organized on campuses and reached over 6,000 people in 2020.

 “Campus risk map” under the Accident-free Rider Project assisted Tainan University of Technology, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and Kun Shan University with identifying and investigating risks in roads surrounding their campuses. Cathay Century found 17 locations where traffic accidents easily occur, and provided a traffic risk recommendation report. The locations will be improved by hardware facilities and stepping up promotion to raise awareness. Furthermore, we developed the "Tainan City Yongkang District Road Safety for Dummies using AR technology for the purpose of reminding citizens to stay safe on the road in the district in order to lower the traffic accident rate.

Accident-free Bicycles was invited by New Taipei City Education Department to participate in the "New Taipei City Information Education Exhibition," and over 3,000 teachers and students participated in the event. Cathay Century was the only property insurance company at the event, where over 350 people experienced AR technology, showing the recognition for combining emerging digital technology with traffic safety education.

 

Providing Risk Prevention and Management to Reduce Losses

Fires, earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and accidents are unavoidable risks in business operations and daily life, but ex-ante prevention and management can lower the frequency of risks and reduce losses. Cathay Century uses its loss control capabilities to inspect the health of companies and help companies continue to improve their operational performance.

Loss Control Services Help Corporate Customers Respond to Potential Risks

Cathay Century utilizes its core competency in loss control to provide corporations with knowledge of risk management and prevention, and also provides professional examinations for the purposes of lowering the frequency and severity of disasters. Thus, we strive to achieve sustainable operations on the basis of the safety of Cathay and its customers. Cathay Century has made disaster prevention plans, conducted on-site risk survey, combined with natural hazard model to provide the loss control and evaluation plan suitable for Taiwan. A total of 294 natural hazard simulations and evaluations were conducted in the past 10 years. Starting in 2020, Cathay Century became the first property insurance company to use a natural hazard model to evaluate damages caused in climate change hazard scenarios, in order to help enterprises achieve sustainable development.

To optimize the enterprise loss control services in 2020, Cathay Century strengthened the technology for simulating personnel evacuation by conducting the Fire Dynamics System (FDS) to assist the SIMULEX simulation to ensure the simulation results would meet personnel safety requirements. Cathay currently has provided services to the most companies compared with other property insurance companies in Taiwan. In 2020, we have provided this service for 5 companies. All the customers shared the feedbacks that the service helped employees to improve the evacuation in case of emergency in the workplaces.

Loss Control Seminar Helps Companies Face Operating Risks

Cathay Century holds a large scale of loss control seminar every year to strengthen the risk awareness of corporate customers. In 2020, the loss control seminar was held with the theme of "business continuity management during COVID-19" in response to the pandemic. The seminar provided the emergency response experience of companies around the world, helped customers examine and refine their business continuity management, and recommended corporations to take precautions for the threat of combined disasters. The comprehensive risk management process, including preparations before a disaster occurs (risk management), responding during a disaster (emergency response and crisis management), and recovery after the disaster (business continuity management), mitigates the impact on operations. There were of 56 corporate customers participated in the seminar and were 100% satisfied.

UBI Automobile Insurance Raises Drivers' Safety Awareness

Cathay Century worked together with the Institute of Financial Law and Crime Prevention and Nan Shan General Insurance Co., Ltd. in implementing the "Usage Based Insurance (UBI) and Dynamic Pricing Big Data Analysis" project. The project's third generation UBI is the first of its kind and is an important innovation in the property insurance industry currently offered on a trial basis.

The UBI Rider utilizes the trend of InsurTech and the driving behavior rating model to offer UBI. Drivers' driving habits (mileage, hours, number of trips, speeding, number of rapid accelerations, rapid decelerations, and sharp turns) are included in the risk assessment used to adjust the premium rate of UBI. Drivers participating in the project can use the data in the product's app to examine and adjust their driving behavior, so that they can drive even more safely.

The UBI Rider allows drivers who drive safely to enjoy premium discounts, and encourages consumers to continue adjusting their driving behavior, which will raise their safety awareness and improve their safe driving behavior. The premium rebates are directly returned the next quarter, shortening the wait time to make an even bigger difference to policy holders.

Note: UBI developed from only considering a single factor – mileage to all data on driving behavior. The third generation UBI features "Pay How You Drive," in which the in-vehicle system automatically senses and records driving related data, which serves as the basis for adjusting premiums.

IoT Fire Accident Value-added Services for Faster and More Convenient Handling of Fire Accidents

Cathay Century engaged in cross-sector cooperation with Taiwan Secom Co., Ltd. to combine IoT (Internet of Things) disaster prevention equipment with Cathay Century's insurance services, providing disaster prevention claims services that meet customers' requirements on home safety.

If customers use the "IoT fire accident value-added services," when IoT equipment in their home detect any abnormalities, it will immediately send a signal to Taiwan Secom Co., Ltd. and personnel in the control center will go to the site of the incident for an inspection. If they confirm that it is a fire accident, they will simultaneously notify Cathay Century using the API. Customers only need to provide a list of losses and proof of losses such as repair receipts to service personnel of Taiwan Secom Co., Ltd. to accelerate claims services of Cathay Century. The "IoT fire accident value-added services" automatically sends data through a program and shortens the time for processing fire accidents from one month to three work days, providing customers with a faster, simpler, and more convenient insurance service experience.

Establishing Health and Safety Protection Net

Cathay established its Safety and Health Work Guidelines, Occupational Safety and Health Management Plan, and Occupational Safety and Health Management Guidelines, subsidiaries of the Group also set up Occupational Safety Committees as stipulated by regulations, where occupational health safety topics are collected and reported to Cathay FHC’s monthly administration management liaison meeting for timely review of strategies as well as progress on implementation of solutions. Refer to Occupational Safety and Health for implementation progress.

Moreover, responsible departments periodically give occupational accident statistical analysis reports at each subsidiary. If an employee undergoes surgery or becomes permanently disabled due to an occupational accident, medical personnel will follow up on the employee’s condition and evaluate if the employee is suitable for existing work. Lastly, we have an employee health risk management process in place to ensure the mental and physical health of our employees. The results of employee health exams are periodically analyzed and classified for health risk management. We compiled an employee health risk map on this basis. Accordingly, we implemented the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and organized healthy promotion activities.

The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Safeguards Employees' Mental and Physical Health

Cathay FHC determines the mental health of its employees on an annual basis. The response rate was 76.2% in 2020, showing that there are no major risk factors to employees' mental health. Cathay FHC implemented the EAP to further help employees achieve work-life balance. Employees can make appointments for services at any time of the day. When employees encounter difficulties or experience stress, a group of professional consultants, including counseling psychologists, clinical psychologists, social workers, practicing lawyers, and financial consultants, will provide one-to-one professional services, in order to improve the mental health of all employees and their quality of work. A total of 430 consultations were provided in 2020, and topics included career, physical and mental stress, and family. According to the satisfaction survey on employees who utilized consultation services, over 90% of employees were highly satisfied with EAP services.

Weight Loss Contest Makes Employees Pay More Attention to Their Physical Health

Cathay found that nearly 30% of employees are overweight (BMI>24) from the employee health exams, meaning that 1 out of every 3 employees is overweight. Obesity is a key factor that affects the health of Cathay employees. Therefore, Cathay has organized the Weight Loss Contest for six consecutive years since 2015, and gradually expanded the scope of the contest from employees to policy holders and employees' family members. Cathay added individual goals in 2020 and refocused the contest on individual performance, so that employees pay even more attention to their personal health conditions. The aggregate number of participants exceeded 65,000 in 2020, and participants collectively lost nearly 120,000 kg in weight. Employee participants’ before-and-after-contest BMIs indicated the Weight Loss Contest has led to an increase of 13% in “healthy body weight”.

 

According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the average life span of citizens is now over 80.9 years following the rise in healthcare standards, emphasis on food safety, and higher quality of life. Yet, despite the longer average life span, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics pointed out that citizens lived up to 9 years of the end of their lives in poor health, which will lead to social issues such as the burden of family care and healthcare expenses.

Improving Physical and Mental Health of General Public

The Cathay Walker Project Generates $6.3 in Social Impact

Cathay Life was the first in the industry to combine insurance with health management in 2014, offered insurance policies with spillover effect, and implemented the Cathay Walker Project in 2018. The project views national health as a part of corporate social responsibility, and transforms the function of insurance from compensation to prevention. This project aims at achieving the goal of “Building healthy habits with policyholders together" by encouraging participants to walk 7,500 steps a day." The number of users in the Cathay Walker Project reached 280,000 in 2020 and the cumulative number of steps were approximately 391.25 billion, enough to walk to the moon and back 317 times.

Furthermore, Cathay Life uses Social Return on Investment (SROI) to evaluate the Cathay Walker Project's impact on users, and obtained certification from Social Value International (SVI). For every NT$1 invested by Cathay Life, NT$6.3 in social value is generated. Cathay Life is the first insurance company in Taiwan to compile a report certified in the UK, showing that Cathay Walker brings true meaning.

Cathay At Your Side Health Project Helps Chronic Disease Patients Enjoy a Healthy Life

Cathay integrated resources from subsidiaries of insurance and hospital. Meantime, Cathay worked with Clover Health, a US-based unicorn insurance startup, in developing a chronic disease risk prediction model and launched the "Cathay At Your Side Health Project." By using data, AI and big data analysis technologies, we screened policyholders with chronic diseases that are high health risks. This allows us to take preventive measures in advance and improve policyholders' health, helping diabetes patients effectively control their blood sugar and enjoy a healthy life.

Cathay Life screened high risk policyholders by the risk prediction model, jointly developed with Clover Health, and actively invited the policyholders to participate in the project. Cathay Life then integrated resources across departments and systems with Cathay General Hospital, and then combined Clover Health's Health2Sync app with Cathay Life’s Cathay Walker step counter app for participants to easily upload their data. This makes health consultants determine the timing for intervention and provide health education easily, and also lets doctors see all of the information at a glance when patients return for follow-up. Nearly 1,000 people have participated since the Cathay At Your Side Health Project was implemented, and after nine months in the project, 53% of patients are no longer in the alert zone and 31% of patients are already in the safe zone.

Providing the First Long-term Care Insurance with In-kind Benefits to Meet Customers' Needs

Cathay Life offers the widest variety of long-term care (LTC) products in the industry, and works hard to raise citizens' risk awareness, which helps citizens properly apply LTC insurance for elderly life.

Cathay Life led the industry in offering 2 LTC insurance products with in-kind benefits in 2019, and further offered 3 more new products in 2020, with diversified product structure and coverage to meet the needs of general public on LTC services.

Cathay Life is working with Chunghwa Senior Care Co., Ltd., an excellent external LTC institution, to provide options for actual services. Policyholders can gain the economic support through both lump sum settlement and installment payments, and can choose the needed support by cash payments or actual services directly from service provides. This option offers policyholders a right to solve the economic burden of LTC or to their actual needs of services. So, these products can help policyholders and family members decrease the pressure of LTC.

Cathay Provides Dementia-Friendly Care

According to the estimates from the Taiwan Alzheimer's Disease Association, the prevalence of dementia among people aged 65 and above may reach 10% in Taiwan in 25 years, meaning that 1 out of every 10 elderly people will have dementia. However, 52% of people still believe that "dementia is a normal part of aging" and make no preparations. In light of this, Cathay Life shouldered the responsibility of helping people clearly understand dementia and promoting dementia-friendly services. Cathay Life implemented the "two engines of dementia" in hopes of mitigating the impact of dementia on patients, caretakers, family members, and the nation.

First engine: To build a dementia-friendly care network by integrating elite agents and elderly service locations around Taiwan

Cathay Life actively supports the Health Promotion Administration's policy of promoting dementia-friendly communities, by utilizing all resources to organize "dementia prevention and friendly" training. This activity aims at letting all employees have a correct understanding of dementia, so that they will become friendly angels to serve care functions in the community. Sales agents are in the first wave and will accelerate the spread of dementia-friendly care. Business units and policyholder service centers that provide elderly services are support units of our high density dementia care network. At present, over 13,000 sales agents and over 100 locations around Taiwan have completed training.

Furthermore, Cathay Life and the Taiwan Alzheimer's Disease Association, an important driving force of the dementia prevention and care policy, co-organized the "Care for Dementia Together" event, which is combined with the concept of walking to prevent dementia. The event invites people to enroll in Cathay Walker products, and Cathay Life will donate NT$10 to the Taiwan Alzheimer's Disease Association for each insurance policy purchased by customers. Policyholders will not only improve their health when they reach the target number of steps, but also enjoy additional coverage or premium discounts, and can also contribute to care for dementia, creating a situation where everyone wins! Nearly 65,000 people are currently participating and the amount donated has surpassed NT$650,000.

Second engine: First dementia insurance with spillover effect and in-kind benefits in the industry

Cathay Life considered the need for dementia insurance and offered the only product with spillover effect and in-kind benefits in the industry. Policyholders can choose in-kind benefits based on their needs and acquire personalized dementia care services from an excellent institution. This reduces the stress of trying to find a suitable care institution, and meets different needs by giving policyholders the flexibility of settlement options.

Set up a "Splendid Life" Website for the Middle-aged and Elderly Generations

To help the middle-aged and elderly generations easily face the challenges after retirement and enjoy a wonderful life, Cathay Life set up an exclusive website, "Splendid Life". This website introduces the policy of LTC 2.0 by illustrations, so that citizens will be able to know quickly how they can grasp government resources. Furthermore, Cathay Life cooperates with several institutions to offer resources on a section of the "Splendid Life" website, so citizens can quickly gain information on discounts for elderly products or services. This website can help elders get required information and caretakers catch their breath to face the caring tasks calmly.

Medical studies have pointed out that the risk of dementia starts to rise 20-30 years before onset, usually age 65. Hence, age 40 is crucial to avoid dementia. The website, "Splendid Life", specially provides "40+ dementia prevention" services to meet the needs before, during, and after the onset of dementia. For example, a cognitive training game, "Memory Billionaire", is provided to train reaction ability logical thinking, attention, and memory free of charge, and this game has been certificated by occupational therapists. The website also provides the AD-8 scale for screening very mild dementia, which can help citizens with early discovery of dementia and slow the progression of dementia.

Providing Coverage for Long-term Care Institutions and Caretakers via Long-term Care Institution Liability Insurance

In response to Taiwan's aging population, the long-term care service system has become the key to realizing Aging in Place. However, operations of long-term care institutions often have many risks, in which fire accidents are the most common and most severe risk and have taken the lives of 36 people in the past 7 years, causing massive asset loss and liability of related personnel. Negligence by caretakers is also another common risk. Caretakers may negligently cause injury when providing physical care and household services, and will become liable for compensation while long-term care institutions bear the risk of joint liability.

Cathay Century offered the first long-term care liability insurance in the property insurance industry, so that long-term care institutions will be able to effectively avoid risks, maintain steady operations, and continue to provide long-term care services. The insurance provides necessary coverage for long-term care institutions and caretakers, so that they will not need to worry so much about compensation when providing services. This will increase the willingness of caretakers to enter long-term care industry, and allow even more individuals and families to receive good care in the future. Long-term Care Institution Liability Insurance meets the needs of both long-term care institutions and individuals for coverage, and fundamentally changes the constitution of long-term care institutions by lowering the frequency of loss. The design of the insurance was recognized by various sectors and won the 4th "PwC CSR Impact Awards – Product Innovation Impact Award."

Cathay noticed that elderly people frequently become victims of fraud in recent years, and that citizens have insufficient awareness towards the importance of preparing for retirement. Hence, we are making an effort to create a complete social and financial safety net for the elderly, increasing their financial independence and protecting the asset safety of elderly people.

 

Professional Trust Team Protects the Asset Safety of Elderly People

CUB was the first in the industry to establish a professional trust team that aims to provide comprehensive trust. CUB utilized its understanding of social trends to develop innovative and friendly trust products and services, in order to respond to the rapidly changing society, helping individuals and society build a firewall of assets and transaction. This will help citizens properly arrange their future lives and assets according to their blueprint for their life. CUB became the only bank to win the "Best Trust Finance Award" for four consecutive years in 2020.

CUB participated in the "2020 Keelung City Forum for the Elderly" organized by Keelung City Government Department of Social Affairs in 2020 and engaged in exchanges with industry, government, and academia. CUB used examples in daily life to share how elderly people can use the trust system to avoid the risk of financial exploitation, such as assets being scammed or embezzled. CUB hopes to use government and communities to help the general public understand that trust is not only for the wealthy, as well as the designated use of funds, so that trust will be looked at as a way for protecting asset safety as Taiwan becomes a super-aged society.

 

Disability & Retirement Trust ensures assets are used for their designated purpose

CUB protects the assets of elderly and disabled people through trusts, allowing them to rest assured and pass on their assets. The Disability & Retirement Trust Program allows people to entrust different types of property at the same time, and ensures that trust assets are used exclusively for the designated purposes. As of the end of 2020, 316 elderly and disabled people entrusted assets worth NT$1.687 billion into disability & retirement trusts.

 

Promoting Pension Planning to Meet Needs after Retirement

In order to let more people achieve their pension planning better, Cathay SITE keeps optimizing the Cathay Retirement Plan Platform. With the platform’s calculator, the users are only 3 steps away from understanding how much money they need for retirement. It also takes the individual's labor insurance, labor pension, and national pension into considerations, giving the users a clear review over their current pension planning. As a result, this helps people prepare for their retirement earlier and easier.

In addition, Cathay SITE realized that many Taiwanese people prepare for retirement insufficiently. Thus, we launched the "Cathay Target Date 2029/2039/2049 Fund of Funds" in 2019, providing investors with the easiest way for retirement investments. With these funds, all the investors need is to decide in which year they want to retire and then choose the fund with the closest target date. As for asset allocation, the professional fund management team keeps adjusting the ratio of stocks and bonds based on the glide paths of the funds. As of the end of 2020, the number of participants has surpassed 26,000.

 

Jointly Raising Anti-Fraud Awareness among the Elderly Together with Strategic Partners

Cathay FHC was the only financial institution to collaborating with National Taiwan University's Smart Aging Design Courses, which bring together elderly health management, engineering and design students from five universities in Taiwan. Course lecturers came from both industry and academia and aim to cultivate interdisciplinary talent, while providing solutions for aging society issues.

Cathay FHC trained students taking the Smart Aging Design Courses to develop the board game "Fraud Defense Force" using patterns of fraud cases in Taiwan and anti-fraud information provided by the Criminal Investigation Bureau. The board game was developed in 2019 under the theme of raising anti-fraud awareness among the elderly, and used actual cases in anti-fraud education for elderly people in communities to learn anti-fraud knowledge in an entertaining way. This led to the Criminal Investigation Bureau planning to organize a total of 100 board game promotion events around Taiwan in 2020, which is expected to affect over 10,000 people.

Over 70 events for the board game "Fraud Defense Force" have been held as of the end of 2020, and over 375 Cathay volunteers and 1,500 elderly people participated in the event. The pre-test questionnaire showed that only 75% of elderly people were not aware of two or more types of scams, while the post-test questionnaire showed that 100% of elderly people understood fraud prevention methods, creating a safety net for assets in an aged society.

Furthermore, CUB prevents fraud with the assistance of technology systems and data analysis, and has successfully blocked over 180 attempts to transfer funds to scammers in the past three years, protecting approximately NT$100 million in citizens' assets.

 

Cathay provides a full array of products and services for citizens, financially disadvantaged groups, SMEs, startups, youth, and women to achieve financial inclusion, effectively improving the accessibility and convenience of financial services in Taiwan and overseas.

 

Supporting Financially Disadvantaged Groups

Micro Insurance

Cathay Life has offered micro insurance for over a decade, and has cooperated with county and city governments as well as social welfare organizations in promoting micro insurance, allowing more people who truly need micro insurance to gain coverage. Cathay Life once again won "First Place" and the "Performance Excellence Award" in the Micro Insurance Contest in 2020, further recognition of Cathay Life's achievements by the FSC.

As of the end of 2020, Cathay Life and Cathay Century have provided basic economic security that totaled approximately NT$97.2 billion for over 297,000 economically disadvantaged people, and also provided timely economic assistance to support 867 families to get through tragedies or disasters.

Small Amount Whole Life Insurance

Cathay Life offered the Small Amount Whole Life Insurance for all people to obtain basic coverage for aging trend. The product features lower enrollment requirements and cheaper premiums. As of the end of 2020, the product provides basic economic safety to nearly 210,000 policyholders, and increases an amount of approximately NT$65 billion in coverage for society, which can meet the basic requirements of elderly coverage. Cathay Life ranks first in the industry in terms of the number of insureds and insured amount.

Charitable Trust

The scale of CUB's charity trusts was the largest in the industry as of the end of 2020 at NT$37.524 billion. The bank has helped several founders and owners of companies listed on TWSE/TPEx and successful individuals in society to establish trusts for the purposes of charity, education, and children's welfare in hopes of enhancing the transparency of charitable donations and ensuring that donated funds are truly used on those in need. The amount of donations made through charitable trusts reached NT$310 million in 2020.

MFI Loans

CUB provided a loan to PRASAC Microfinance Institution Limited (PRASAC), which is Cambodia's largest micro-finance institution, to show its commitment to corporate sustainability and determination through the support of inclusive finance. Furthermore, CUB served as the arranger of syndicated loans that totaled US$280 million with other domestic banks for PRASAC for two consecutive years starting in 2018, backing PRASAC in developing micro-finance and SME loans. As of the end of 2020, the balance of loans provided by CUB (including branches) to MFIs reached US$83.4 million.

Supporting the Growth of SMEs and Startups

SME and Social Enterprise Loans

CUB has worked closely with the SME Credit Guarantee Fund of Taiwan for years, and began offering a number of financing projects in 2016, such as the "preferential loans for wholesalers and retailers," "preferential loans for social enterprises," and "loan project for working capital to SME suppliers." As of the end of 2020, the balance of loans provided by CUB to a total of 7,177 SMEs was NT$228.4 billion. CUB cares about and empathizes with SMEs in Taiwan. For the people who care about this land and work hard and maintain it, we extend our reach and lend a hand to serve even more customers that need funds, using well-designed mechanisms to support SMEs as they grow.

CUB and Taipei City Government jointly implemented the “Social Enterprise Preferential Loan Project” to aid the development of social enterprises, and to help social enterprises with development potential to obtain capital in accordance with government policy. CUB also worked together with the SME Credit Guarantee Fund to provide direct guarantee and low-interest preferential loans to qualified enterprises. CUB hopes to furthermore bring together government, organizations, and corporations in building a preferential loan platform for social enterprises. As of the end of 2020, the balance of loans to a total of 9 social enterprises was NT$ 21.25 million. The loans allow social enterprises to successfully support underprivileged groups and contribute to environmental sustainability.

CPBL Gambling Prevention Trust

CUB offered the first "CPBL Gambling Prevention Fund" and "Contract Trust" for professional baseball players in cooperation with the Taiwan Professional Baseball Players Association (TPBPA), Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), and baseball teams, and the partnership has successfully lasted for 10 years as of 2020. Baseball players voluntarily put a part of their monthly salary into the trust, and teams require one third of new players' signing bonus and 6% of the salaries of lower salary players in minor leagues to be deposited into the trust. The players will only be able to collect the full amount they deposited into the trust after retirement if they were not involved in any illegal conduct while they were still playing.

CUB has returned the assets of over 180 retired players in the trust over the past 5 years. One of the outfielders deposited over NT$100,000 into the fund every month and collected over NT$8 million at retirement, so he will not need to worry about money after retirement. The accounts of nearly 20% of active players have reached at least NT$1 million. As of the end of 2020, the number of players participating in the CPBL Gambling Prevention Fund had reached 270, and the scale of trust assets surpassed NT$154 million. These funds not only prove to the public the players' determination to prevent gambling, but also provide funds for players to start a business or take care of their family after retirement.

Furthermore, CUB is the sole sponsor of the TPBPA Feedback Train, which has been held for 8 consecutive years and tours 14 counties and cities every year. Star players personally teach and share how they became players, and encourage students to develop different interests, develop through interactive learning, and create different possibilities in life.

Crop Insurance

Cathay Century began offering mango crop insurance in 2016 in response to climate change issues and government policy to protect the earnings of farmers and asset safety. Cathay Century is the only insurance company to sell mango insurance. Besides covering mango losses caused by typhoons, torrential rains, and cold weather with Mango Insurance Linked to Government Disaster Relief Efforts, we also began offering "Mango Insurance Linked to Regional Harvests" in 2017. Policy holders will be eligible to file claims when actual harvests in the region are lower than the guaranteed harvest, which provides farmers with greater flexibility. We actively participate in product presentations of farmers' associations to promote the insurance products and thereby protect farmers' asset safety.

Cathay Century expanded the coverage of its Mango Insurance Linked to Government Disaster Relief Efforts to high temperature (Foehn wind) and continuous rain in 2020, providing more comprehensive coverage in light of abnormal climate changes. The total insured amount of Mango Crop Insurance reached NT$40.86 million as of the end of 2020.

Furthermore, Cathay Century began offering Guava Crop Insurance in Changhua, Tainan, and Kaohsiung in 2019. Data from local weather stations are used as the basis for filing claims. The "typhoon wind speed and rainfall" linked product was tailored for the areas. If the maximum gust reaches a 10 or above on the wind scale during the typhoon, or cumulative rainfall over five consecutive days reaches 300 mm, then the claims procedure is initiated. The data is fair and objective, and the claims process is effectively accelerated because there is no need to conduct a disaster investigation. It also avoids and claims disputes, allowing farmers to rapidly receive benefits to cover their losses and repair their orchards. The total insured amount reached NT$15 million as of the end of 2020.

Cathay Century has actively participated in farmers forums since it began offering agriculture insurance, helping farmers build insurance concepts, raise their risk awareness, and collect information on market demand. Cathay Century periodically examines products and adjusts contents to provide more complete protection for farmers, helping farmers quickly return to cultivation through the insurance compensation mechanism after suffering losses from natural disasters.

Innovative Credit Loans for e-Commerce Sellers – “Shopee Seller Loan” & “Pinkoi Designer Loan”

Cathay FHC's DDT and CUB collaborated with EC partner Shopee in offering "Shopee Seller Loan," the industry's first credit loan product based on big data. Through unconventional financial data modeling and calculation, such as their merchant information and transaction records, Shopee sellers now can apply for a credit loan online when they need funds. The loans are quickly approved and disbursed into a linked account. The loan application process is linked together by an API to provide a smoother, quicker and more friendly user experience. Cathay used the same model and jointly offered the "Designer Loan" together with Pinkoi, an EC platform offers start-up designers’ products, in hopes that the innovative credit loan for e-commerce sellers will help even more medium and small sized e-commerce sellers gain a steady foothold and expand their scales, which will drive growth in overall quantity and quality of sellers, and bring new opportunities into Taiwan's e-commerce market and young entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, nearly 70% of citizens have reduced their consumption behavior outside due to the impact of COVID-19, and this has severely impacted the transaction model of brick-and-mortar stores. CUB worked together with Shopee in helping brick-and-mortar stores transition online in order to fulfill its corporate social responsibility to mutually benefit with business partners, so as to help brick-and-mortar stores improve their business. Dedicated personnel help brick-and-mortar stores use Shopee and save the stores from wasting resources on exploring, investing, and testing. CUB also provides transaction fee exemption, so that stores can transition from offline to online without any burden, and further implement an online-merge-offline business model, jointly facing the pandemic based on the concept of smart retail.

 

Promoting Youth Wealth Management and Small Personal Loans

Investment under Regular Savings Plan

Cathay Securities began offering regular savings plans on the "Cathay Securities App" for investing in Taiwan's stock market in 2019, and lowered the minimum subscription amount to NT$1,000, so that low asset customers or young customers with limited funds can also begin to invest in the stock market. Approximately 50% of Cathay Securities' customers are aged 35 and under, showing that there is indeed demand among the younger generation for regular savings to invest in the stock market. The processing fee for a subscription amount under NT$10,000 in the regular savings plan is only NT$1, transferring profits back to investors in an effort to provide inclusive financial services and fulfill our corporate social responsibility. From August 2019 to the end of 2020, debits for systematic investment plans of Cathay Securities totaled NT$5,334 million, with the accounts of over 90,000 people debited and market share reaching 36%.

Other than putting great thoughts into asset management for the investors, Cathay SITE strives to cultivate financial talent as well. Besides implementing the Cathay Internship Program and the industry-academia collaboration projects, Cathay SITE has begun working with business related departments in universities in the second half of 2020, and organized the first campus financial management series lecture "Required Course on Smart Wealth Management for the Young Generation" By introducing financial management tools and the investment trust industry to the youth, the lecture creates a finance health environment, and offers the learning opportunities for students who want to devote themselves into investment specialties.

Small Personal Loans

CUB sets out to resolve customers' problems, and began offering the revolving credit loan product "Revolving Loan" on mobile banking in November 2019, providing customers with convenient, flexible application process upon their intentions. The number of customers that applied for a Revolving Loan grew six-fold because the product better meets their needs, in which the ratio of new customers is higher than other small personal loan products offered by CUB. Furthermore, customers do not need to call or check their contract to verify repayment or balance details after loan approval and drawdown, and can directly view the status of their loan on the app My MobiBank, which provides the loan amount and balance at a glance. There is no manual processing required and the available credit limit will immediately return whenever a payment is made! The entire customer journey from application, disbursement, and inquiry to repayment not only overturns the previous model of telemarketing for bank loans, but also gives consideration to citizens not wanting others to know about their need for a loan. This thoroughly changes customers' loan application experience and habits.

"Revolving Loan" was first offered to a portion of customers in 2019, and the bank found that many customers who were not invited expressed their hopes to apply for the loan through different channels. The product was further expanded inviting up to 4.5 million customers in 2020 in response to this demand, in hopes of providing fast and convenient loan services who had not dealt much with banks or young customers that are recent graduates.

 

Offering a Full Array of Innovative Financial Inclusion Products

Financial Service Station

CUB upholds the brand spirit that unlimited possibilities can be created – "What if We Could," and opened the industry's first "CUB Financial Service Station" stationed in PX Marts in 2020. The Financial Service Station accepts account opening applications, digital service promotion and consultation, credit card application and discount inquiries, and automation equipment consulting, and teaching. The service station removes constraints of conventional banks on time and place by extending service hours to 9:00 PM, significantly improving the accessibility and convenience of financial services for consumers. As of the end of 2020, CUB Financial Service Station has helped over 8,000 customers resolve their financial problems.

CUB is a good neighbor to consumers by extending financial services into corners where they are needed via the highly mobile financial service station. For example, Yilan County has a population of approximately 450,000, and CUB has one branch in Yilan – the Yilan Branch. Meanwhile, PX Mart has 20 branches in Yilan County, 6 of which are in Luodong Township. Setting up a financial service station in PX Mart's Luodong Guangrong Branch effectively expands CUB's service area in Yilan, and goes deep into communities to understand the financial needs of Yilan residents. In particular, the area has a relatively old population, and quite a few people put their savings into time deposits, but they do not know that this can be done using a mobile banking app or ATM, so personnel of the financial service station focus on teaching people how to use digital services. This saves customers the time they would have spent traveling downtown to access services at a counter, and successfully brought people, especially elderly people, closer to FinTech.

The CUB Financial Service Station moves between locations and is stationed in each location for a limited amount of time, during which it directly observed the different financial needs of different communities. For example, customers in Wugu Industrial Park (now New Taipei Industrial Park) hurry in and out of the industrial park and do not stay after work, so they seek fast and efficient services. When stationed in a residential area in Taichung, it was apparent that customers had more time to inquire about services at the financial service station at night, so there were more customers overall. Over the same number of days, the financial service station provided services to 30% more people compared with Wugu Industrial Park. CUB adjusted its service model based on the characteristics and needs of different areas after seeing this difference, and realizes the spirit of contributing to the community by visiting different areas.

Friendly Claims Services

Cathay Life offered the first "payout for in-patient hospital fees" service. By actively showing concern for hospitalized policyholders, directly paying their medical expenses when they are discharged, and actively handling clams, Cathay Life provides this one-stop claims service to enhance service experience for policyholders. Cathay Life worked with nearly 30 regional hospitals around Taiwan during the COVID-19 outbreak. When policyholders are hospitalized and use medical services, they can use the service to deduct claim payments from their medical expenses. Their claims will continue to be reviewed after discharge, and payouts will be directly transferred into the policyholder's account. Policyholders do not need to submit documents to Cathay Life for application, saving them time and effort. Meantime, policyholders can be safer by reducing contact with people directly.

Furthermore, if policyholders need funds due to hospitalization and treatment, they can apply to advance medical claims by calling the 24-hour customer service hotline or sales agents of Cathay Life. By accessing advance medical claims in a single phone call, policyholders can apply for up to 7 days of advance medical claims to gain immediate care, providing them with complete basic medical insurance. As of the end of 2020, 1.7 million policyholders have used the "payout for in-patient hospital fees" service, and over NT$460 million in claims payments was deducted from medical expenses, effectively helping policyholders recuperate efficiently.

Financial Management Seminar for Women

Cathay FHC takes women empowerment very seriously and has organized women empowerment events for two consecutive years, combining static lecture courses with dynamic healthy exercise courses to build a stage where women can speak out with confidence. The 2020 event was held in Taichung with the theme "2020 Taichung Women's Day," using data to analyze differences in wealth management, consumption, and exercise between the two genders, while reacquainting participants with their inner needs and helping them realize an ideal life.

After listening to the lecture, Miss Lin who had just graduated from college happily said that she had relatively weak financial awareness in the past, but the lecture and event held by Cathay was very meaningful and made her want to properly manage her wealth. She hopes that she will become financially independent in the future.