Great Eastern Life Assurance Co. Ltd, often known as Great Eastern Life or Great Eastern, is a
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
an
multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in various countries and jurisdictions in the
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...
region. Headquartered at Pickering Street in
Raffles Place
Raffles Place is the centre of the Financial District of Singapore and is located south of the River, mouth of the Singapore River. It was first planned and developed in the 1820s as Commercial Square to serve as the hub of the commercial zone o ...
, it is a subsidiary of
OCBC Bank
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Limited (), often known as OCBC Bank (), is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in OCBC Centre, Singapore. OCBC Bank was born out of the Great Depression thr ...
, and it is the largest and oldest
life insurance
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...
company in Singapore.
At 2006, the company had assets in excess of
S$8 billion, 2.6 million policies in force served by 24 branch offices and a service network of more than 17,000 agents nationwide. In August 2007, it had S$45 billion in assets and 3 million policyholders.
In 2020, the company's website stated that it has over S$90 billion in assets and over 8 million policyholders, including 5 million from government schemes. It has three distribution channels – a tied agency force,
bancassurance
Bancassurance is a relationship between a bank and an insurance company that is aimed at offering insurance products or insurance benefits to the bank's customers. In this partnership, bank staff and tellers become the point of sale and point o ...
, and financial advisory firm, Great Eastern Financial Advisers. It is the only life insurance company to be listed on the
Singapore Exchange
The Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) is a Singaporean investment holding company that provides different services related to securities and derivatives trading and others. SGX is also a member of the World Federation of Exchanges and the Asian ...
, and the largest insurance company in Southeast Asia in terms of assets and
market capitalisation
Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders.
Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...
.
History
1908–1920: Early years
Incorporated on 26 August 1908 in Singapore, Great Eastern has claimed to be the oldest and most established life insurance company in Singapore.
1920–2004: International expansion
In 1920, Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad started as a subsidiary branch office of Great Eastern Life Assurance Co Ltd. in Singapore.
In November 1999, Great Eastern Life underwent restructuring to become a wholly owned life insurance arm of a financial holding company – Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. This was followed by a merger between Great Eastern Holdings and Overseas Assurance Corporation in December 2000.
In June 2004, Great Eastern Holdings became a substantially owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank, Singapore’s longest established local bank. OCBC Bank has assets of S$164 billion and a network of 390 branches and representative offices in 15 countries and territories including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Brunei, Myanmar, Japan, Korea, Australia, United Kingdom and the United States.
This network includes more than 280 branches and offices in Indonesia operated by OCBC Bank's subsidiary,
Bank OCBC NISP
PT Bank OCBC NISP Tbk (formerly Bank NISP) is an Indonesian publicly listed banking and financial services company headquartered in South Jakarta, Indonesia. The bank is owned by Singaporean banking and financial group, OCBC Bank, which holds ...
. OCBC Bank and its banking subsidiaries offer a wide range of specialist financial services, from consumer, corporate, investment, private and transaction banking to treasury and stockbroking services.
In addition to Singapore where Great Eastern is headquartered, and Malaysia with 29 branches, Great Eastern also has a branch office in Brunei since 1975, a subsidiary company in Indonesia since 1996, and representative offices in Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
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.
Modern era
In June 2006, Great Eastern and Chongqing Land Properties Group launched their 50:50 joint venture life insurance company, Great Eastern Life Assurance (China) Co Ltd. This new company is headquartered in
Chongqing
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...
which will act as a bridgehead for its expansion plans into the rest of China.
The company was also named Life Insurance Company of the Year at the Asia Insurance Industry Awards in 2011 and 2013, by Asia Insurance Review.
Other awards include:
*HR Vendor of the Year in 2015 (Silver winner) by the Human Resource Magazine, for Best Insurance Vendor and Best Retirement and Pension Plans
*Best Team of the Year Award in 2018, 2019 by the Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards
*Best Employer in Singapore in 2019 by Kincentric's Best Employers global certification programme
*Most Transparent Company (Finance Category) in 2019 by Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS) Investors' Choice Awards
*First within the Life Insurance sector in 2019 by
Singapore Management University
The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. The university is the only city campus in Singapore. It ranks third in Asia as a specialist university, behind Hong Kong University of Science and Techn ...
's (SMU) Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG)
*Gold at the 2020 Hermes Creative Awards, organised by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (USA)
*5th in the Brand Finance Top 100 Singaporean Brands for 2020
*Most Valuable Brand in Singapore 2020, by Brand Finance
References
External links
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Companies listed on the Singapore Exchange
Insurance companies of Singapore
Financial services companies established in 1908
Life insurance companies
Privately held companies of Singapore
Singaporean brands