Chinatrust Financial, one of Taiwan's leading financial services provider, has sealed a merger deal on Tuesday with the Taiwan unit of the US-based Metlife for a sum of 5.3 billion NT dollars, meaning the company can finally enter the life insurance market it has long targeted. Chinatrust immediately promised that the rights and benefits of all the employees of Metlife Taiwan will remain unchanged.

Chinatrust Financial Holding has announced its acquisition of MetLife for US$ 180 million, or NT$ 5.3 billion. With the acquisition, Chinatrust's total holdings increase to NT$ 1.86 trillion.

Chinatrust says that the rights of MetLife's employees and 300,000 customers will not be affected. Chinatrust has traditionally lacked an insurance arm, and there were several bidders for MetLife.

MetLife is the fifth foreign life insurance company to downsize or divest since the financial crisis.

Experts say that the trend is inevitable, but the Financial Supervisory Commission prefers to err on the side of caution to protect the rights of insurance customers.

As insurance companies transition to other types of investment or issue high-risk insurance coverage to offset financial difficulties, many end up with excessive debt and must sell or merge.

MetLife's last major layoffs took place in 2006, and experts are calling on the government to do everything in its power to protect customer rights.

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