Singapore, 12 October 2015 – AIA Singapore today announced the launch of the industry's first fully mobile and secure digital underwriter, allowing on-the-spot underwriting – a significant improvement over the current waiting time of three days. This game-changing digital underwriter is built into its interactive point-of-sales system (iPoS) for insurance applications.

 

Leveraging iPoS's leading edge technology, the company's underwriting questions have also been simplified and personalised to suit specific profiles, which can reduce the number of questions customers need to answer by more than half. AIA's iPoS, launched in 2013, is a game-changer for our industry, transforming our customers' experience when purchasing insurance. Engaging customers in an interactive sales process with the aid of a tablet, iPoS, helps our AIA Financial Services Consultants (FSCs) provide customers with a better understanding of how AIA's products and services will meet their personal needs and aspirations.

 

The digital underwriter leverages this ground-breaking technology to make the process of purchasing insurance policies easier, quicker and more personalised, in line with AIA's commitment to provide peace of mind and bridge the protection gap in Asia. Together with an AIA FSC, customers can now identify relevant policies and go through underwriting to make a purchase in a single meeting – anytime and anywhere – with the enhanced, integrated iPoS.

 

Sim Preston, Group Chief Operations Officer of AIA Group, said, "AIA is pursuing a culture of innovation as part of our commitment to anticipate and provide the best possible service to meet the changing needs of our customers. We will continue to roll out this technology in other AIA markets as we lead the way and set new standards for efficiency, productivity and customer experience in the industry."

 

Patrick Teow, Chief Executive Officer, AIA Singapore, said, "This new, digital underwriting module simplifies the insurance purchasing process by offering speed and convenience to our customers. We are very proud to be the first insurer in Singapore to bring this technology to the market. In today's fastpaced world, we know the importance of making it easy for customers to do business with us and we are committed to provide the best possible service at their time of need. This is a step in the right direction for us as The Real Life Company."

 

Productivity of AIA FSCs will also be boosted with the implementation of this enhanced system, in line with the nation's focus on sustainable economic progress through increased productivity levels¹ . The system will allow AIA FSCs to spend less time on administrative matters and more time on providing quality advice to meet customers' protection and financial needs, and underwriters can focus more on handling complex cases and expedite the approval of customer applications.

 

iPoS in AIA Singapore was recognised as Innovation of the Year 2013 Award at the 17th Asia Insurance Industry Awards, and received the 'Excellence in Distribution Channel Management Award' at the Financial Insights Innovation Awards in the same year. 

 

 

 

Fully secured tailored/personalised questions	Simplified and tailored questions that will suit specific profiles, which replaces cumbersome form-filling, and standardised, one-size-fits-all policy questions, which have now been designed to fit an individual's age, sex and policy choice, with a cleaner, slicker design for the digital age.
Instant underwriting decisions at the point-ofsale for standard insurance applications	E-application forms are electronically submitted for underwriting and customers can get confirmation of underwriting results as soon as the underwriting process is completed and policy contracts issued. This will remove the anxiety and frustration customers sometimes experience while waiting days for a verdict on their applications.
Easier access to getting protected	Simplified insurance purchases for customers, with on-thespot underwriting decisions at the point-of-sale for customers – giving new meaning to the term 'ease of doing business'. The digital underwriter will respond to any additional disclosure from customers and ask supplementary questions so that instant underwriting decisions can be obtained at the point-of-sale for standard insurance applications.
Mobility and Convenience	All our AIA agents can benefit from having the digital underwriter embedded into iPoS. It will allow them to conduct business anywhere and anytime, at customers' convenience, with a fully automated system.
Attuned to the preferences of potential recruits and customers	Moving to an automated system will also ensure that AIA Singapore is more attuned to the preferences of potential recruits and customers. Two in five Singaporeans own a tablet computer, compared with one in three a year ago.²

 

 

 

 

 

AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively "AIA" or the "Group") comprise the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has a presence in 18 markets in Asia-Pacific – wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Phillippines, Australia, Indonesia.

 

 

AIA Singapore Private Limited (Reg. No. 201106386R) Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Macau, Brunei, a 97 per cent subsidiary in Sri Lanka, a 26 per cent joint venture in India and representative offices in Myanmar and Cambodia.

 

The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai over 90 years ago. It is a market leader in the AsiaPacific region (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$172 billion as of 31 May 2015.

 

AIA meets the long-term savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance and savings plans. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia-Pacific, AIA serves the holders of more than 29 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes.

 

AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock code "1299" with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: "AAGIY").