Manulife has opened a new Lab of Forward Thinking location in Singapore. The hub joins established labs in Boston and Toronto to focus on innovation and emerging fintech solutions for Asian consumers.
The Lab of Forward Thinking (LOFT) is a global exploration and incubation capability to build Manulife's competitive advantages within the financial services industry. The LOFT provides a platform for employees to collaborate and devise new technological solutions for wealth, asset management, and insurance customers.
Singapore the Natural Choice
The Toronto headquartered company chose to build a LOFT in Asia and Singapore, with its thriving start-up culture, is the perfect home for that investment the firm said.
In the last six months, the LOFT announced collaborations with ConsenSys and BlockApps to apply blockchain technologies to enhance the on-boarding of new wealth management clients. They have also announced partnerships with Nervana Systems and indico data solutions to develop artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies that enhance investment research.
Relationship With Banks
Earlier this year finews.asia reported on the establishment of a joint fund between DBS Bank and Manulife Financial to be invested in digital technology as part of their 15-year regional partnership agreement.
Innovative initiatives, such as the LOFT, RED Lab and the creation of the new roles of Chief Analytics Officer and Chief Innovation Officer are part of Manulife's strategy to provide solutions to improve the customer experience.
«We are using emerging technologies and platforms such as blockchain and artificial intelligence to build competitive advantages, now that our Singapore LOFT has launched, our global innovation system can continue to explore new markets and build solutions that will benefit our customers around the world,» said Greg Framke, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Manulife.
