Taipei - Taiwan confirmed Friday that US ratings agency Moody's plans to quit the country in order to focus on larger Asian markets, a move seen by some as a warning sign for the island. According to the Central News Agency (CNA), Moody's - which has operated in Taipei for six years - has notified Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) of its plan to leave Taiwan by the end of June as part of its re-structuring in Asia.

FSC will approve Moody's withdrawal after making sure that the interests of Moody's local clients have been protected, CNA said.

The FSC told CNA that since Moody's operation in Taiwan is small, its departure will have little impact on Taiwan's credit ratings, but some experts said this should be a warning for Taiwan.

Liang Kuo-yuan, director of the Polaris Research Institute, warned that Moody's withdrawal may dampen foreign investors' interest in Taiwan.

"Taiwan should try to improve the transparency of its government and enterprises, amend outdated rules, promote its internationalization, so as to lure foreign funds," CNA quoted him as saying.

"Taiwan needs to make a big effort. ... if it wants to become an Asia-Pacific operations centre of financial centre," he added.

Moody's has about 160 employees working in its offices across Asia - China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, South Korea and Australia.

Moody's provides ratings on over 170,000 corporates government and structured finance securities.(dpa)