Income Insurance Limited, commonly known as Income and previously also known as NTUC Income, is a Singaporean insurance company that offers life, health and general insurance. Initially founded as a cooperative in 1970 under the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), it was restructured as a public non-listed company limited by shares in 2022 as part of a corporatisation exercise.
History
The idea of co-operatives, also known as social enterprises, was first conceived at NTUC's Modernisation Seminar in 1969, where delegates from NTUC-affiliated unions gathered to discuss the challenges Singaporean workers were facing. Then, Singapore was a developing nation with a population comprising mostly blue-collar and low income workers.[2] One of the founding leaders of NTUC, Devan Nair, articulated the need for the labour movement to turn into a social institution to serve Singaporean workers in various ways. Then-Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee supported this and urged NTUC to set up social enterprises in areas such as life insurance and essential consumer goods to meet the needs of the working population.[3]
NTUC Income was established on 11 September 1970, with seven life trustees, which included Goh Keng Swee, Devan Nair, Minister for Law and Minister for National Development Edmund W. Barker, MP for Moulmein and NTUC deputy secretary-general Lawrence Sia and Ee Peng Liang.