Message from Wai-Kwong Seck, Chief Executive Officer, Eastspring Investments

The ongoing health crisis and economic uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic means that our customers and partners look to us more than ever for their financial security. Throughout this evolving situation our unwavering focus has been on ensuring the health and safety of our colleagues and their families whilst we continue to serve our clients around the world.

Our approach is underpinned by our purpose as Experts in Asia. Invested in Your Future. , together with our strong financial position, attention to business continuity planning, ongoing investment in technology and enduring emphasis on the fiduciary responsibility we have to our clients.

New ways of working

Over the last six months, we have effectively transitioned from a company with 11 offices across Asia and client servicing teams in the US and Europe, to an almost entirely remote workforce operating in more than 3,000 ‘home offices’. With around 70% of our colleagues working from home, our recent investments to modernise our operations and streamline processes have provided a strong backbone to ensure we continue to operate effectively. Our new operating model and award-winning adoption of robotic process automation have helped us adapt quickly to remote working, whilst using our full range of technology resources has enabled us to find solutions where there were gaps.

All this would not have been possible without the hard work of so many of my colleagues and the adaptability of the whole team to our new ways of working. I am grateful for all their efforts.

Focusing on the evolving needs of our clients and partners

At a time when the financial security of our clients has been foremost on our minds, providing continued service and support no matter where each of us is physically located has been critical. We have adapted, innovated and embraced technology to ensure we remain connected and collaborative.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create uncertainty in markets and economies throughout the world, we have increased our thought leadership resources for our clients and partners, frequently sharing our investment and market views in these fast-changing, unprecedented times. We have also developed and launched several new funds designed to meet the evolving needs of investors.

Supporting and connecting our colleagues

Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, a key priority has been to ensure the health and wellbeing of our colleagues. In line with local government guidelines we have implemented work-from-home arrangements and safe distancing measures, as well as provided masks to all colleagues, introduced regular temperature checks and more frequent sanitising of workspaces.

Building virtual connections and enabling collaboration across our global business units has also been even more critical in recent months and we have introduced new virtual channels and resources to keep colleagues informed and bring them closer together as they adapted to working from home. We have also placed an emphasis on wellbeing – for example, sharing online seminars and resources through our extensive Employee Assistance Programme and running wellness classes .

Our resilience during this crisis is due to our proud heritage – we have operated in Asia for more than 25 years and our parent company, Prudential plc, has been in the region for over 95 years – together with our strong commitment to our stakeholders, our colleagues and clients, their families and the communities in which we operate.

We are firmly Invested in Your Future. I am confident this resilient mindset puts us in a strong position as we look ahead to the rest of 2020.

Thank you for your ongoing trust in us.
Wai-Kwong Seck
Chief Executive Officer, Eastspring Investments