Foreigners with ARC Investing in Taiwan stock market

Hi,

I tried to invest in the Taiwan stock market under my A.R.C. But when I checked it out with a local brokerage I was told my A.R.C was some kind of “waijinchiu…” ARC which meant I had to have a security account here with collateral in it and then pay a local bank a monthly fee to guarantee the investment. Basically a kind of letter of credit agreement. But if I had another type of ARC I would have been okay to invest normally like any ROC ID holder…

This all proved so much trouble that now it’s under my Taiwanese girlfriend’s name…a rather risky investment!!

Is there any easier way for a foreigner to invest individually in the Taiwan stock market? And is it true there is more than one type of ARC?

Secondly I got stock options through the Taiwanese company I work for through the annual employee share bonus, but it was claimed they couldn’t give them officialy to me so I had to arrange for those stock options to be paid to a colleague’s account…Is there any way for an ARC holder to get stock options directly?

Thanks very much in advance,
Roq

There are effectively only two types of ARCs, (1) a regular one, with a validity period of one year to three years, whereupon it needs to be renewed, (2) a permanent one (PARC), which never needs to be renewed.
Hence, I have no idea of what you are referring to here. Since the PARCs have only been issued since February 2000, I find it hard to believe that the Ministry of Finance has already issued any special regulations in regard to those PARC holders, as opposed to regular ARC holders. This is to say that I doubt you are talking about any distinction between an ARC and a PARC.
I suggest that you get full copies of the Chinese regulations and mail them to me, along with a full statement of what you think is unfair, and I will check it all out for you. My name and address are in my Profile on the oriented.org website.

It is relatively simple to invest in the stock market as an individual foreigner:

  1. Apply at the SEC. You need your ARC.
  2. After receiving approval from the SEC, open an account at a securities company.
  3. Start trading.

The whole process takes around 2 weeks.

The fact of the matter is, many local securities houses are flummoxed when it comes foreigners investing and have no idea of the procedures, or just do not want to deal with it.