Singlife has appointed Citi and BlackRock to provide a comprehensive technology platform to unify and transform its asset management capabilities across its front, middle and back-office offering.

The partnership follows an earlier alliance between Citi and BlackRock aimed at leveraging Citi’s infrastructure and the Aladdin technology platform to enhance the entire securities services lifecycle for mutual clients. Singlife is one of the alliance’s most significant mandates in Asia to date.

The integration with Citi and BlackRock Aladdin will provide Singlife’s clients with complete portfolio management capabilities that improve efficiencies, automate controls, and enable a seamless front-to-back experience.

Internal and external portfolio management services will be integrated with complete attribution and full reconciliation across all investment and accounting records. This will enable Singlife to better calculate and continuously monitor risk exposures and optimize portfolio returns. 

The platform also aims to accelerate Singlife’s drive towards sustainability and improve its ability to meet regulatory requirements.

Kim Rosenkilde, Singlife's group chief investment officer, comments: “Safeguarding assets, improving internal processes and increasing efficiencies across the board is fundamental in allowing us to better serve and focus on our clients. Our mission to always find ‘a better way’ extends to our engagement with Citi and BlackRock Aladdin, who are globally recognized as the premier provider of custody services and the industry-leading portfolio management platform respectively." 

Akiyoshi Takeuchi, head of BlackRock solutions, Asia-Pacific, adds: “Clients need innovative solutions that enable them to respond rapidly as we navigate increasingly uncertain markets. One-stop access to a wealth of necessary data and portfolio management technologies is critical to help our clients make more informed investment decisions. The extension of our partnership with Citi to enable front-to-back-office transformation at Singlife underscores the importance all three firms place on meeting client needs and transforming their experiences.”  

The selection of Citi and BlackRock Aladdin was coordinated by Alpha FMC, a specialist asset management consultancy. It began with a tender for 11 different front-office and back-office partners, with a total of 28 different combinations assessed. The final selection was directly overseen by Singlife’s senior executive leadership.

Singlife says the assessment was based not only on the individual capabilities of Citi and BlackRock Aladdin, but also on the overall strength of the partnership.