[OR] [GEL] [E1] [C1] Overview of OR Case Study

eBook 1: Chapter 1

Understanding Your Organisation - The Case Study of Great Eastern Life

Introduction

Operational resilience has become a key supervisory priority for financial institutions, particularly in highly interconnected, technology-driven environments such as the insurance sector. Regulators increasingly expect insurers to demonstrate the ability to prevent, adapt to, respond to, recover from, and learn from operational disruptions, ensuring that critical services to customers and the financial system remain available.

In Malaysia, the regulatory expectations are reflected in the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) 2025 Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience, which outlines principles for identifying critical business services, setting impact tolerances, and strengthening the resilience of supporting resources.

This chapter introduces the organisation used throughout this eBook case study—Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad, part of the wider Great Eastern Holdings Limited group. As one of the leading life insurers in Malaysia, Great Eastern operates in a complex ecosystem involving customers, agents, healthcare providers, regulators, digital platforms, and technology partners. Understanding the organisation—its environment, structure, services, and strategic objectives—is a critical first step before designing and implementing an operational resilience programme.

The purpose of this section is therefore to establish organisational context. It explains how Great Eastern operates, what services it provides, who supports those services, and how resilience objectives can be aligned with its strategic priorities. These insights will provide the foundation for subsequent chapters in the eBook that focus on the implementation of operational resilience in practice.

Purpose of Chapter

The purpose of this chapter is to provide readers with a foundational understanding of the organisation before embarking on the implementation of operational resilience. By examining Great Eastern Life’s operating environment, organisational structure, resilience team composition, and strategic resilience objectives, readers will gain insight into how insurers should contextualise operational resilience within their business model. This chapter prepares the reader to recognise the importance of identifying critical services, mapping dependencies, and aligning resilience goals with regulatory expectations. Ultimately, the objective is to equip readers with the organisational perspective needed to support the practical implementation steps discussed in the subsequent sections of this eBook.

Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad is one of the most established life insurance providers in Malaysia, offering a broad range of protection, savings, health, and wealth management products. As part of the Great Eastern Holdings Limited group, the organisation operates across multiple markets in Asia and serves millions of policyholders through a combination of agency channels, bancassurance partnerships, and digital platforms.

Great Eastern’s operations include:

• Policy issuance and administration
• Insurance underwriting and risk assessment
• Premium collection and financial management
• Claims management and policy servicing
• Distribution through agents, banks, and digital platforms
• Customer engagement and advisory services

These services rely on a combination of people, technology systems, operational processes, and third-party partners, all of which must remain resilient to disruptions.

According to the 2025 BNM Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience, insurers should clearly understand their organisational structure, operating model, and service dependencies before identifying critical business services. This organisational understanding enables firms to identify where disruptions may occur and what controls are required to maintain service continuity.

Great Eastern Life’s Operating Environment

Great Eastern operates within a complex regulatory and operational ecosystem that shapes its resilience priorities.

1. Regulatory Environment

The Malaysian insurance sector is regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia, which sets expectations relating to governance, risk management, outsourcing, technology risk management, and operational resilience.

The 2025 BNM Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience emphasises that insurers must:

• Identify critical business services
• Set impact tolerances for disruption
• Map dependencies across people, processes, technology, and third parties
• Conduct severe but plausible scenario testing

For Great Eastern Life, regulatory expectations directly influence the design and implementation of resilience programmes.

2. Digital Transformation and Technology Risk

The insurance sector is increasingly digital. Great Eastern relies on:

• Online policy servicing platforms
• Digital claims submission
• Customer portals and mobile applications
• Agent sales platforms
• Core insurance administration systems

While digitalisation improves efficiency and customer experience, it also introduces new risks such as:

• Cybersecurity threats
• System outages
• Cloud and vendor dependency risks
• Data integrity risks

Operational resilience ensures that critical services continue even if technology disruptions occur.

3. Ecosystem Dependencies

Insurance services rely on a broad ecosystem, including:

• Healthcare providers and hospitals
• Reinsurance partners
• Banking partners for payments
• Digital platform providers
• Technology service vendors

The BNM discussion paper highlights that third-party and supply-chain dependencies are a major source of operational disruption risk.

Composition of an Operational Resilience Team for Great Eastern Life

A successful operational resilience programme requires collaboration across multiple organisational functions. The BNM discussion paper emphasises the importance of strong governance and cross-functional coordination.

For Great Eastern Life, the Operational Resilience Team would typically include the following roles:

This multidisciplinary structure ensures that resilience is embedded across the organisation rather than treated as a standalone risk function.

Critical Business Services of Great Eastern Life

According to the BNM Operational Resilience discussion paper, organisations must identify services that could be disrupted in a way that would cause intolerable harm to customers or threaten financial stability.

For Great Eastern Life, examples of critical business services (CBS) may include:

These services represent key value-delivery points for customers, and disruptions to them could lead to financial losses, reputational damage, or regulatory concerns.

Key Characteristics of Great Eastern Life

Understanding an organisation's operational characteristics is essential for resilience planning.

1. Customer-Centric Service Model

Insurance services directly affect customers’ financial security and health protection. Any disruption to claims processing or policy servicing could have a significant impact on customers.

2. Heavy Reliance on Technology Platforms

Insurance operations rely on integrated IT systems such as:

• Policy administration systems
• Claims management systems
• Customer relationship management platforms
• Payment gateways
• Agent portals

Technology resilience, therefore, becomes a core pillar of operational resilience.

3. Extensive Distribution Network

Great Eastern operates through:

• Agency force networks
• Bancassurance partnerships
• Digital sales channels

Each distribution model introduces different operational dependencies and risks.

4. Regulatory and Compliance Sensitivity

Insurance companies must comply with strict regulatory requirements, including:

• Consumer protection rules
• Data protection laws
• Financial solvency requirements

Operational disruptions could therefore result in regulatory breaches if services are not maintained.

Establishing Organisational Goals for Operational Resilience

The BNM 2025 Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience encourages financial institutions to align resilience objectives with their broader strategic goals.

For Great Eastern Life, organisational goals for operational resilience may include:

1. Protecting Policyholders

Ensure that policyholders can continue to:

• submit claims
• access policy information
• receive claim payments

even during disruptions.

2. Maintaining Critical Business Services

Establish impact tolerances for key services such as claims processing and premium collection.

Example:

3. Strengthening Technology Resilience

Invest in resilient infrastructure, such as:

• cloud redundancy
• disaster recovery capabilities
• cybersecurity controls
• automated monitoring

4. Improving Third-Party Risk Management

Ensure that outsourced service providers can support resilience objectives through:

• contractual resilience requirements
• vendor testing and monitoring
• contingency planning

5. Enhancing Crisis Management and Response

Develop integrated frameworks that combine:

• business continuity management
• disaster recovery
• crisis communication
• incident response.

Understanding the organisational structure, operating environment, and service delivery model of Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad is a critical first step in building a robust operational resilience programme. As highlighted in the Bank Negara Malaysia 2025 Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience, financial institutions must clearly identify their critical business services, understand their dependencies, and ensure that these services remain available even during severe disruptions.

This chapter establishes the organisational context necessary for implementing operational resilience at Great Eastern Life. By analysing the insurer’s operating environment, governance structure, critical services, and strategic priorities, the groundwork is laid for the next section of this eBook—Implementing Operational Resilience for Great Eastern Life, which explores practical frameworks and implementation approaches in detail.

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