The bank has announced three senior appointments to support the growth of its insurance business, as it ramps up its manufacturing and distribution activities in Singapore.

HSBC is boosting management oversight on key units of its insurance business in Singapore with the appointment of Lee Kah Jing as chief product officer, Gajan Yogaranandan as chief risk officer, and Kapil Arora as chief financial officer, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

«To meaningfully grow our business to scale, there’s a need for us to fire up all cylinders. This means having the support of a strong leadership team to drive key pillars of our business, be it at the product development and management aspect or oversight of key business risks and our financials, is critical,» Carlos Vazquez, CEO, HSBC Life Singapore said in the statement.

Appointments

Lee, whose appointment was effective on 1 July, joins from  Sun Life Financial Indonesia, where he was head of Product Actuarial. He brings more than 10 years of life insurance experience across key areas including analytics, enterprise risk management, product development and actuarial pricing.

Arora, who joined HSBC Group in 2007, brings more than 15 years in the field of finance and accounts. He was most recently head of Financial Control at HSBC Insurance (Hong Kong). His appointment is effective 19 August.

Yogaranandan, also with more than 15 years of sector experience, joined HSBC Group in 2011, and was most recently a manager of Global Market and Credit Risk. He was previously the lead Market and Credit Risk manager for HSBC’s Europe insurance business. His appointment is effective 26 August.

Business Overhaul

In May 2019, finews.asia reported that HSBC rebranded its Singapore life insurance business to HSBC Life Singapore and widened its distribution channel to include independent Financial Advisory (FA) firms, in a bid to capture a slice of Asia-Pacific's booming insurance market as a result of an ageing and wealthier domestic population, and a rise in international citizens seeking more sophisticated wealth and insurance solutions.

It has since ramped up its offering with new products and expanded distribution arrangements. HSBC Life said that it has grown its overall headcount by 25 percent in the past year.