Insurance giant Standard Life reveals plans to open office in Singapore INSURANCE giant Standard Life has got the green light from authorities to open an office in the fast growing Singapore region targeting wealthy investors. Standard Life today announced that it is expanding its retail investment business in the Asian market following the granting of full insurance licence approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The Edinburgh-based group has set out ambitious plans to quadruple the size of its Asian business in the next five years. The firm has also recruited Neal Armstrong from his role as principal officer of Zurich International Life in Singapore. Armstrong, who brings with him his experience in both the international long term savings and investment industry and of operating in the Singapore market, will lead the Singapore operations, a branch of Standard Life International. Situated in Singapore's Central Business District, the new office will open for business this month. The agreement with the Singapore authorities will allow Standard Life to target high net worth individuals. The insurer said Singapore was an "ideal market," one of the top four financial centres globally, and which is significant in scale and fast-growing. Nathan Parnaby, who recently took over the role of chief executive, Asia and Emerging Markets, said, "Our long term ambition within Asia is to build a leading retail savings and investment business. Singapore is a large and respected financial centre and we are committed to building a successful business from there, focused on delivering high quality products for customers. He added: "We have a proven track record in delivering sustainable growth, built on our distribution, platforms and investment management expertise. We believe today's licence approval provides another great opportunity for our business within this new and exciting, high-growth market. Standard Life already has emerging market operations in India, an asset management business and a life business, both of which are a joint ventures with the publicly listed Housing Development Finance Corporation. In China the firm operates Heng An Standard Life Insurance Company, its joint venture with government-owned Tianjin TEDA Investment Holding Co.