HSBC SG creates new chief customer officer role to lead insurance arm

HSBC Singapore has appointed Rachel Chen (pictured) as chief customer officer for its insurance arm, HSBC Life. In this newly created role, Chen is responsible for marketing, customer experience, health and wellness and digital at HSBC Life, and reports directly to Ho Lee Yen, CEO, HSBC Life Singapore, HSBC's spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. Chen was formerly general manager, consumer business at Singlife, and later took on the additional role of chief digital officer after it merged with Aviva last year to form Aviva Singlife.

According to her LinkedIn, Chen has over 18 years of experience in financial services. Coupled with a track record of driving innovation and growth, she is known for driving complex cross-functional changes and building high performing teams. 

Chen had also previously worked at Aviva for close to a decade. She started as assistant manager, management reporting and performance management, finance, and later took on lead roles in areas such as business operations and customer experience. Her most recent role at Aviva was as head of customer experience, regional marketing, where she was responsible for CSR programmes in Asia, and also led cross-functional customer improvement projects, customer insights, research and analytics. She was also tasked with regional customer segmentation modelling, targeting strategy and proposition development and proposition development, among others.

Separately, last year saw HSBC appointing Ho Lee Yen as its CEO of insurance operations in Singapore. Ho was formerly chief distribution officer at AIA Singapore where, under her stewardship, she led the digital transformation of the distribution model. Before that, she was AIA's chief customer and marketing officer and was key in leading the launch of AIA Vitality, a health and wellness programme. 

More recently, HSBC entered the metaverse last month through a partnership with The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands. The partnership allows the bank to create innovative brand experiences for new and existing customers. HSBC  acquired a 3x3 LAND site in The Sandbox metaverse with an intention of engaging and connecting with sports, esports and gaming enthusiasts.

According to HSBC's CMO for Asia Pacific, Suresh Balaji then, the metaverse is how consumers will experience Web3, the next generation of the Internet. This is achieved by immersive technologies such as AR, VR and extended reality. "At HSBC, we see great potential to create new experiences through emerging platforms, opening up a world of opportunity for our current and future customers and for the communities we serve," explained Balaji. 

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