OCBC has pinpointed wealth management as a key growth driver.
The Singapore bank, which reported Wednesday fourth quarter earnings below analysts’ expectations, named wealth management as one of its four priorities to drive growth ahead, with the other three including trade and investment flows, new economy industries and sustainability.
Helen Wong, CEO of OCBC, told a media conference Wednesday, «We do see Asia continuing to most likely outperform in the economic recovery, and with our strategy focusing on Greater China and ASEAN, and with our wealth continuing to grow, we see the affluent population will continue to grow in Asia. That leads us to refresh our strategy in this direction.»
Headcount Growth
Headcount growth, partly for the wealth management segment, was cited by the bank as a key driver of a 7 percent increase in operating expenses for the full year.
The hiring isn’t done.
«We are looking to double our hiring in the wealth management segment by 2023 and are focused on our key markets of Greater China and South-east Asia, especially in the offshore business. We have plans to double the income from our offshore wealth management business by 2023,» a representative of OCBC told finews.asia in an email.
Extending Global Wealth Platform
CEO Wong said at the press conference that OCBC would strengthen its hub connections across Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and London.
«We want to extend our global wealth platform -- this is across all customer segments, from Bank of Singapore to OCBC premier customers,» Wong said. «We are accelerating the building up of relationship bankers to capture growth. And we want to deepen cooperation of financial institutions, particularly in China and in regional banks, such as Ping An Bank.»
Bank of Singapore is the private banking arm of OCBC Bank. In October, OCBC had announced its wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary, OCBC Wing Hang Bank, had tied up with mainland bank Ping An Bank to offer cross-boundary sales of wealth management products between China’s Greater Bay Area, including Hong Kong and Macau as well as other high-growth mainland cities.
Net New Money Grows
OCBC declined to provide its net new money for wealth management for 2021, but told finews.asia via email that it continued to grow, mostly coming from Southeast Asia and Greater China.
OCBC reported Wednesday its wealth management assets under management (AUM) came in at S$258 billion ($191.75 billion) at the end of 2021, rising 7 percent from the level at the end of 2020.
The income from wealth management in 2021 grew to S$3.92 billion, rising 11 percent from 2020, and also above 2019’s pre-Covid results for the segment, OCBC said. OCBC said via email that income from wealth management made up more than a third of overall group income.
