When the New Taiwan dollar (TWD) surged unexpectedly on May 2 and 5, the country’s giant life insurers were immediately blamed for the move, given their huge size relative to the Taiwanese domestic market.

Market participants, however, have mixed views on how active the insurers really were – but they agree the moves were exacerbated by hedge funds betting on the currency’s rise after the central bank decided not to intervene aggressively to halt its wild appreciation.

“This has been driven by