OneConnect, a subsidiary of China’s fintech and insurance giant, Ping An, officially opens in Singapore this month and is set to expand within the region at a rapid pace.
With her 22 years experience in Sales and Operations acquired while working for Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and OneConnect, Tan Bin Ru has been appointed CEO of OneConnect in Singapore.
Ru graduated from the National University of Singapore, with a Bachelor of Science (Statistics and Operations Research) in 1996. She also holds a post graduate diploma in Supply Chain Management and is a certified Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
As well as an exoeriences sales director, Bin Ru has helped multiple MNCs and startups with digital transformation and enhancing operations.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), who attended the opening ceremony, said, “We are pleased to welcome OneConnect to the fintech ecosystem in Singapore. The OneConnect platform offers advanced technical capabilities that leverage AI, blockchain, biometrics and cloud computing, all of which are highly relevant ingredients to support financial institutions on their journey of innovation to serve customers better. We believe that the opening of the OneConnect regional HQ and Innovation Lab in Singapore will add much vibrancy to the Fintech ecosystem and create many collaboration opportunities for the financial services industry in Singapore and the broader ASEAN region.”
Official opening today
The OneConnect Singapore office is located at Mapletree Business City and officially opened on 19 November 2018. The area spans 15,000 square feet and includes a state-of-the-art Customer Experience Centre (CEC) showcasing some of the technologies that power many financial institutions in China including 483 banks, 42 insurers, and nearly 2500 non-bank financial institutions.
“These are exciting times and we’re proud to be given such a huge vote of confidence in our innovation work for the fintech space, even though we just opened for business here,” says Tan Bin Ru, CEO of OneConnect Singapore.
Some of OneConnect’s major tech achievements include an accuracy of 99.8% in facial recognition and 99%+ in VPR. They are world-class in voiceprint, microexpression and NLP recognition. OneConnect is also one of the earliest companies to develop and apply blockchain technology in China, exploring 12 application scenarios for finance, medical healthcare, customs, trade, real estate and automotive sectors.
Despite OneConnect is still taking its first steps in Singapore, regional customers have showed their interest in their technology products, namely blockchain and a few AI (Artificial Intelligence) innovations such as facial recognition, voice print and AI-based credit risk control currently demanded by countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. That’s why the Chinese fintech company has built expansion plans in ASEAN
Next steps, office in Indonesia and data centres in Singapore and Indonesia
First OneConnect office in Indonesia is also planned to open soon with its own data centre to handle the volume of business expected in this market. The data centre for Singapore is currently being built, and it is schedued to be completed by the end of December 2018.
“We intend to build a diverse and inclusive workplace culture as is our tradition. Despite our very Chinese roots, more than 30% of employees at Ping An are not Mandarin-speakers and we expect these numbers to grow, given that our focus countries are not primarily Mandarin speaking,” explains Bin Ru.
As of the end of 2018 Q3, OneConnect has served over 483 banks, 42 insurers, and nearly 2500 non-bank financial institutions with advanced fintech solutions. Earlier this year, they completed a Round A financing with a post-investment valuation of 7.5 billion dollars.
About Ping An
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (“Ping An”) is a world-leading technology-powered personal financial services group. With 170 million customers and 459 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Under its ‘pan financial assets’ strategy the company offers customers insurance, banking and asset management through its ‘finance + technology’ platform. Under its ‘pan healthcare’ strategy the company uses a ‘finance + ecosystem’ platform to offer Internet users five ecosystems, covering financial services, healthcare, auto services, real estate services and Smart City services. The company is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Ping An ranked 10th in Forbes’ 2018 Global 2000, and is ranked 29th in Fortune Magazine’s 2018 Global 500 Leading Companies. Ping An also ranked 43rd in 2018 WPP Millward Brown’s BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands.
Image over the headline.- Tan Bin Ru (CEO OneConnect Singapore). © OneConnect.
