Financial services research
in Singapore
Insurance, banking, wealth management, and fintech operate in a market where regulation shapes every consumer decision. Monetary authority oversight, CPF integration, and subsidised public schemes mean that Singaporeans evaluate financial products through a lens no other market shares. Research that misses this context delivers findings that sound right but lead nowhere.
Assembled has completed approximately 47 financial services research projects since 2016, spanning life and general insurance, digital banking, investment advisory, payment platforms, and financial inclusion. Our panel includes 8,600 insurance policyholders, 3,200 HNWIs, and 1,900 C-suite executives across Singapore.
Every project below follows our standard confidentiality practice. Client names are withheld. Participant identities are protected under Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act. Financial screening criteria are validated with relevant specialists before fieldwork begins.
Insurance and product development research
For a regional insurer evaluating product-market fit for a new critical illness plan, we recruited 72 respondents across six segments defined by life stage, existing coverage level, and health anxiety. The research revealed that lapsed policyholders were not price-sensitive in the way the insurer assumed. Their lapse was triggered by a single poor claims experience that they generalised to the entire category. The insight shifted the client's strategy from competitive pricing to claims process transparency.
A Singaporean considering life insurance does not simply compare premiums. They calculate how much Medisave they can channel into MediShield Life top-ups, whether their employer's group coverage creates overlap, what happens to their Dependants' Protection Scheme when they change jobs, and whether an Integrated Shield Plan rider is worth the additional cash outlay. This layered decision-making means standard satisfaction surveys miss the actual mechanics of how people choose.
Banking and digital financial services research
A digital banking platform entering Singapore engaged us to test their onboarding flow with consumers who had never used a neobank. We ran usability sessions combined with attitudinal interviews, discovering that the primary barrier was not trust in the technology but confusion about deposit insurance coverage. Participants did not know whether their deposits were protected under SDIC. Once the client added a single line of regulatory reassurance in the sign-up flow, completion rates in their subsequent pilot improved measurably.
For retail banking, we combine mystery shopping with post-experience interviews to map the gap between what institutions design and what customers actually experience. Branch audits, call centre evaluations, and digital channel testing produce a complete picture that single-method studies cannot deliver. Licensing tiers for digital banks create distinct competitive environments, and research designed for one regulatory category does not transfer to the other.
Wealth management and HNWI research
Singapore's HNWI population makes decisions across multiple jurisdictions, evaluates advisory relationships through both performance and trust, and increasingly expects digital tools without wanting to lose the human relationship. Researching this segment requires interviewers who understand portfolio construction well enough to ask follow-up questions that matter.
We have conducted financial advisor evaluation programmes for institutions preparing for regulatory reviews, using scenario-based assessments across branch networks to identify gaps between documented advisory protocols and actual practice. Fair dealing guidelines mean that advisory processes must meet documented standards, and mystery shopping programmes need to be designed around these standards, not around generic customer experience metrics borrowed from retail.
Why financial services respondents are difficult to recruit
Financial services research hits recruitment walls that other industries do not face. Policyholders must be screened by specific coverage type, sum assured range, and recency of purchase or claims experience. Wealth management respondents need to be verified against minimum asset thresholds. Financial advisors are often restricted by compliance from participating in external research without employer approval.
Our panel of 8,600 insurance policyholders was built through actual project participation over nine years. These are people who have previously discussed their financial decisions in a research setting, which means they are both willing and articulate. For specialist segments like licensed financial advisors, private bankers, or compliance officers, we use referral-based recruitment through our nodal network rather than cold database pulls.
Why financial services research
requires regulatory literacy
Four regulatory structures shape every consumer decision in Singapore's financial sector.
Advisory processes must meet documented standards. Mystery shopping programmes need to evaluate against these standards, not generic customer experience metrics. When the regulator conducts its own mystery shopping exercises across financial advisory representatives, the evaluation criteria are specific and the consequences for poor performance are real.
Determines what products can be recommended, under what conditions, and with what disclosures. Research evaluating advisory quality needs interviewers and analysts who understand the difference between a balanced scorecard assessment and a simple satisfaction survey.
Licensing tiers create distinct competitive environments. A digital full bank operates under different constraints than a digital wholesale bank. Research designed for one regulatory category does not transfer to the other. We build these distinctions into study design from the brief stage.
Medisave, MediShield Life, the Dependants' Protection Scheme, and Integrated Shield Plans create a decision architecture unique to Singapore. Consumers evaluate private insurance through the lens of what public schemes already cover. Research that ignores this layering produces misleading results.
For methodology details including focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnography, and quantitative surveys, see our practical guide. For other industry specialisations, see our healthcare and food & beverage research pages.
Talk to us about
financial services research
Tell us the decision you are trying to make. We will scope the research, recruit from our panel, and deliver findings on your timeline.
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