HSBC starts review of insurance business in Singapore
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HSBC said that Singapore is a “priority market for the group” and that it will continue to offer insurance products to customers here.
PHOTO: REUTERS
SINGAPORE – HSBC Holdings opened a strategic review of its insurance business in Singapore, as part of the group’s ongoing simplification globally.
The review will cover HSBC Life Singapore and “consider all options” for the insurance manufacturing business, with no decision made, it said in a statement, confirming a previous report by Bloomberg News
The British lender said that Singapore is a “priority market for the group” and that it will continue to offer insurance products to customers in the city. It is focused on increasing leadership and market share in areas where it has “a clear competitive advantage” and where it has the greatest opportunities to grow and support its clients, it said.
The review comes about four years after the bank bought AXA Insurance in Singapore under previous chief executive Noel Quinn to build a global wealth hub in the city and fuel its expansion across South-east Asia.
Since taking over in 2024, CEO Georges Elhedery has undertaken the biggest overhaul of the bank in at least a decade, cutting management layers and thousands of jobs. HSBC has reorganised into four new divisions and exited some businesses once considered key to the lender’s future.
Mr Elhedery is also doubling down on Hong Kong, the bank’s largest market, with a US$14 billion (S$18 billion) buyout offer for Hang Seng Bank, which got the nod from minority shareholders in January.
“HSBC’s potential sale of its Singapore life insurance business is likely to generate strong interest” from other global insurers, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Steven Lam and Grace Huang wrote in a note on Jan 15.
HSBC shares rose as much as 1.6 per cent in Hong Kong on Jan 16. The stock has gained 67 per cent in the past 12 months.
The life insurance market in Singapore has attracted interest. In 2024, Allianz agreed to buy a majority stake in Singapore’s Income Insurance for about $2.2 billion. But it later withdrew the offer, after the proposed deal attracted public outcry, prompting the authorities to block the deal.
In March 2024, Sumitomo Life Insurance also completed its purchase of a 35.5 per cent stake of SingLife for $1.6 billion. BLOOMBERG
