Jun 10, 2019 in Member Spotlights by DIACC

Spotlight on Manulife

Meet Manulife

  1. What is the mission and vision of Manulife?

Manulife is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better in Canada, the United States and in 12 countries in Asia. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and Manulife elsewhere. We are a trusted market leader in insurance providing life and health solutions and among the top 30 fund managers in the world with financial advice, wealth and asset management solutions.

We believe our greatest contribution to society is the products we provide, which help people make their decisions easier and lives better. We also strive to make meaningful impacts in other ways: through environmental responsibility, philanthropy, employee volunteerism, promoting health and wellness, and much more.

2. Why is trustworthy digital identity critical for existing and emerging markets?

The need for verifiable identity is important to many industries. In financial services, as a trusted custodian of our client’s information and property, secure solutions are critical from the first introduction to a client, throughout our relationship with them and to be there during their most important life events. Manulife is focused on making these points of contact as simple as possible. Through joining DIACC, we are working to support Canada’s digital economy and supporting digital identity solutions that are trustworthy, convenient and secure methods of protecting the private information of our customers.

3. How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy? How does Manulife address challenges associated with this transformation?

A trusted and secure digital identity improves the security and information exchange for every connection with our customers. It enables financial services to move from static paper forms entered on legacy systems over to customer-centric services.

For Manulife’s advisor community, the simplification and security provided by digital identity will enable them to provide better services for our customers. We strongly believe in improving how customers interact with us every day, using digitization and innovation to exceed expectations. We were the first Canadian insurer to accept any type of group benefit claim online or through mobile. And, by the end of 2018, we exceeded two million robotic transactions in Canada. We also launched online claims capability for health and dental customers, which is being met with fantastic early feedback through survey results.

This fits with our goal to make decisions easier and lives better at every point of contact with our customers.

4. What role does Canada have to play as a leader in the space?

Canada has an opportunity with the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework to prove that information custodians can deliver an identity model that puts the customer in control of their information securely and efficiently to drive the next generation of commerce.  

5. Why did Manulife join the DIACC?

Manulife is moving to be a digital, customer-obsessed, market leader. Our priority is to improve customer experiences, using digitization and innovation to put customers first.  By joining DIACC, Manulife will be the first insurer joining other leaders – in technology, government and business – to develop Canada’s digital identification and authentication framework to enable Canada’s full and secure participation in the global digital economy. With Manulife’s global footprint, we also have the opportunity to bring insights from its other markets and share DIACC’s outreach objectives internationally.

6. What else should we know about Manulife?

One-third of adult Canadians are Manulife customers with products ranging from health and dental plans to group pensions, travel insurance, life insurance, investments and banking. We know customers are looking for more digitization and innovation at every touchpoint. This is why it is important to be at the forefront of developing Canadian digital identity.