OCBC’s decision to
create Bank of Singapore, Singapore’s first domestic pure-play
private bank, is a major step forward for the industry, according
to an industry expert.
Francis Koh, professor of the finance practice
at Singapore Management University (pictured), said the move showed
domestic Asian banks were becoming more organised and aggressive
wealth management players.
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OCBC’s Bank of Singapore is a combination of
its existing private banking business and the ING Asia-Pacific
private banking assets it bought on 29 January for S$2 billion
($1.4 billion). The new private bank has 7,000 clients and $23
billion in assets under management. It will be headed by Renato de
Guzman, the CEO of the former IAPB. “OCBC is creating a strategy
with a pure play private banking organisation, and that really
moves forward the frontier of wealth management in Singapore,” Koh
told Private Banker International (PBI) today.
“It also shows their confidence that private
banking is growing and likely to continue growing in the
Asia-Pacific region.”
He added that by keeping its Lion Capital
asset management business and Great Eastern insurance subsidiary
separate from the private bank highlighted its seriousness to
develop the bank as a client-friendly business. This is in keeping
with a similar move by Julius Baer, which recently separated its
private bank from GAM, its asset management arm.
A recent poll at PBI’s 19th annual
awards and conference in Singapore showed more than 50 percent
of private banking executives believe an Asian bank will be among
the leading 10 global private banks by 2015.
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By GlobalDataFor in-depth analysis of the OCBC
deal, Bank of Singapore and the full interview with Francis
Koh, see the next edition of PBI, out on February
16.
