2017

Prudential pledges support to nurturing innovation with five-year sponsorship of the Singapore Fintech Festival

Singapore, 16 November 2017 – Prudential Singapore (Prudential) today announced a five-year commitment to the Monetary Authority of Singapore to be a Grand Sponsor of the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) from 2018 to 2022. The sponsorship agreement demonstrates Prudential’s dedication to fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and co-creation among financial institutions, fintechs and regulators globally.

Mr. Wilf Blackburn, Chief Executive Officer of Prudential Singapore, said that the company sees its sponsorship of the SFF as an opportunity to contribute to the development and growth of the financial ecosystem.

“The spirit of the SFF is one of collaboration and co-creation. This is something that we strongly believe in supporting at Prudential. Emerging technologies play a critical role in improving the way financial institutions provide services to our customers, in growing commerce, and ultimately in making life better for everyone through greater financial inclusion. Such transformation is accelerated when we strengthen connectivity, share expertise and innovate together for the good of our communities. The SFF does important work in this area and that is why Prudential is proud to support the Festival with a five-year Grand Sponsorship commitment,” said Mr. Blackburn.

Prudential is a Grand Sponsor in the 2017 edition of SFF and a mentor to fintechs participating in the Global Fintech Hackcelerator. The company introduced several new digital solutions benefitting customers, businesses and startups at the festival. This includes a new machine learning-enabled e-claims solution which can make claims assessments in seconds and a blockchain-based digital trade platform for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the finalists from Prudential’s PRU Fintegrate Partnership programme for global fintech startups were given opportunities to showcase their digital solutions at fireside chats at the Prudential booth.

SFF is the largest festival of its kind in the world, bringing together more than 25,000 participants from financial institutions, technology companies and fintech startups from over 100 countries.

Mr. Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS, said,"MAS is delighted that Prudential is committing S$2.5 million to support the Singapore FinTech Festival over the next five years. The Festival owes its success to the strong support by the industry, and partnership among all the players in the FinTech ecosystem."

Prudential investing in technology and people

Singapore is a key innovation test-bed for Prudential as it harnesses technology to make insurance simpler and more accessible.

Recognising that customers are demanding greater speed, seamlessness, convenience and control over their finances, the company has been investing in understanding customers’ needs more deeply and in creating a distinctive Prudential customer experience across multiple touch-points. It is also creating digital tools to help its 4,500 financial consultants work more efficiently and serve customers better.

As part of its digital roadmap, S$70 million has been invested in technology this year in Singapore and the company has increased its bench strength by 15 per cent. It recently moved to a new activity-based office environment that encourages collaboration and innovation. Prudential employees have also been upskilling in areas such as design thinking and other technical capabilities to prepare themselves for the future and to meet customers’ evolving needs.

For more about Prudential’s latest innovation initiatives:

About Prudential Singapore

Prudential Singapore, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Prudential plc, is one of the top life insurance companies in Singapore. We have been serving the financial and protection needs of Singaporeans for 86 years. Our focus is to bring well rounded financial solutions to customers through our multi-channel distribution network, with product offerings in Protection, Savings and Investment. We are one of the market leaders in Protection, Savings and Investment-linked plans with S$29.4 billion funds under management as at 30 June 2016. In 2014, we were awarded an AA Financial Strength Rating by leading credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s.

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