Singlife with Aviva, the merger of two Singapore-based insurers, launches on January 1 2022 as a financial services brand, offering a comprehensive suite of insurance and investment solutions to help customers “gain control of their financial wellbeing at every stage of the lives”.
The brand leverages the best of Singlife’s insurtech capabilities and Aviva Singapore’s 40-year track record of providing insurance and investment solutions, advisory capabilities and strong customer base, to help consumers achieve financial freedom, the company says.
First announced in September 2020, the S$3.2 billion (US$2.36 billion) merger is one of the largest insurance deals in Southeast Asia.
Pearlyn Phau, group CEO of Singlife with Aviva, says: “The Covid-19 pandemic was a much-needed wake-up call for the insurance industry. The world moved online, and the insurance industry had to quickly change its processes and transform. It was clearly behind the curve and there is still much to be done to digitize and use data and technology to improve customer experience. The products are complex, difficult to explain, the industry is fragmented with multiple players.
“We believe that consumers deserve better. They deserve clear, simple information and an industry which supports their needs all through their lives. After all, we offer policies for 20 years or more, we have to be here for the long term and provide customers a far simpler way to control their financial wellbeing at every stage of their lives.”
The company says environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles will be one of its key strategic pillars and it is committed to being a business anchored on ethical and transparent practices. In November 2021, it announced its participation in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Greenprint, in partnership with CO2X, to use real-time data in the transport and logistics sector to monitor emissions and to see if this can improve underwriting and reduce premiums for the sector. It is also working with fintech company Hashstacs on its industry-wide blockchain-based ESG Data and Certification Registry, also under Project Greenprint.
On investments, Singlife with Aviva has teamed up with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to be a seed investor in a fund focused on renewable energy transition investments with strong and predictable cash flow. This is the first of several seed investments to be made with fund partners with a proven expertise with an ESG focus, the company says.
