Role of manager to be separated from that of owner in a Taiwan financial institution

To further separate the role of managers and that of owners in a Taiwanese financial institution, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) decreed recently that the chairman of the board of directors of a financial institution shall not also be a manager and there shall not be more than one general manager. Any financial institutions not in line with the new decree should modify its current practice within 6 months if there is more than one (1) general manager, or within 12 months if its chairman is also a general manager.  The rationale behind the new decree is that a company should be run by a manager and such a role is better separated from that of the owner, and also if there are more than one general managers, the division of work among the general managers tends to be too limited or narrow and it deprives the general manager of a full view of the company’s operations resulting in dysfunction of his duties and loopholes in terms of internal controls.  Also, no financial institution shall designate a job title of chief executive officer (CEO) for the same reason as causing overlap and confusion with the job of a general manager. FSC’s actions are obviously a result of concerns that financial institutions should observe a higher and stricter level of internal controls because its malfunction can have devastating consequences on the lives of thousands, if not millions.