OCBC Bank
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, abbreviated as OCBC, is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the OCBC Centre. As of 2023, it had S$581 billion in assets, making it the second largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets. Globally it operates over 400 branches and representative offices in 19 countries, including Indonesia, mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.
OCBC is one of the world's most highly rated banks, with credit ratings of Aa1 from Moody’s and AA from Standard & Poor's. It is also consistently ranked amongst the top three "safest banks in the world" by the magazine Global Finance.
The Asian Banker named OCBC as Singapore's strongest bank for 2018–2019, and the 5th strongest in the Asia–Pacific region under subsidiary Bank OCBC NISP, OCBC Bank and OCBC Bank respectively. OCBC was awarded World's Best Bank in 2019 by Global Finance Magazine. It operates on Malaysia as OCBC Bank Berhad and is one of Malaysia's largest foreign banks.
History
Founding and early years
On 31 October 1932, three banks – Chinese Commercial Bank, Ho Hong Bank, and Oversea-Chinese Bank – merged and consolidated their strengths to form Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation under the leadership of Hoklos Tan Ean Kiam and Lee Kong Chian, who was then vice-chairman of Chinese Commercial Bank. Lee played a central role in leading the amalgamation and is affectionately known today as the "founding father" of OCBC Bank. When OCBC began operation in February 1933, it was already one of the strongest local banks in the Straits Settlements.In 1942 during World War II, all the local banks in Singapore closed briefly during the early days of the Japanese Occupation. By April 1942 most banks, including OCBC, had resumed normal operations. In Indonesia, the Japanese occupation authorities closed OCBC's branches in Sumatra. During the war, the bank moved its head office to Bombay, India and only re-registered back in Singapore after the war ended. OCBC's branch in Xiamen survived the war and in the 1950s, OCBC was one of only four foreign banks to have branches in China.
Post-war expansion and operations
After the war, OCBC re-established its branches in Jambi, Jakarta, and Surabaya. However, the 1963 conflict between Indonesia and Malaysia resulted in the closure of OCBC's branches there. That same year the revolutionary government in Burma nationalized OCBC's two branches there, which became People's Bank No. 14.The bank was criticized for not expanding fast enough to meet the needs of the post-war Chinese business community, especially in the smaller towns of Malaya. One of the critics was Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat who resigned in 1959 after failing to be appointed to the bank’s board of directors, and subsequently set up Malayan Banking in Kuala Lumpur in 1960 with 80 former OCBC staff.
Growth in Singapore
By 1970, OCBC's total assets exceeded S$1 billion, making OCBC the largest financial institution with the biggest deposit base in Singapore. By the end of 1981, OCBC’s total assets had grown to over S$7 billion.In December 1972, OCBC acquired Four Seas Communications Bank, the oldest surviving Chinese bank in Singapore. The bank had been founded in 1906 as the Sze Hai Tong Bank and its founders had targeted the Teochew community. In 1976, the landmark OCBC Centre, designed by renowned American architect I. M. Pei, was completed and serves as OCBC's current headquarters. On 9 May 1989, OCBC took on a new corporate identity by changing its logo and its name to OCBC Bank.
Overseas expansion
The next major acquisition occurred in August 2001, when OCBC acquired Keppel Capital Holdings and all its subsidiaries, including Keppel TatLee Bank, Keppel Securities, and Keppel TatLee Finance. By February 2002, both OCBC and Keppel TatLee banks were operationally and legally integrated.On 25 June 2004, OCBC Bank established a wholly owned subsidiary e2 Power Pte Ltd to provide back-office operations and technology support and transaction processing services in Singapore. A similar operating company, e2 Power Sdn Bhd was also set up on 21 July 2004 in Malaysia.
On 3 June 2005, OCBC saw the grand opening ceremony of its newly constructed Malaysia headquarters and main branch in Kuala Lumpur, officiated by then-Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and in July the same year, OCBC opened an off-shore branch in Brunei.
Modern innovations
On 11 May 2017, OCBC entered into an agreement to acquire National Australia Bank’s private wealth business in Singapore and Hong Kong. The acquisition was completed in November 2017. The deposits and mortgages booked in Hong Kong was transferred to OCBC Bank while those booked in Singapore was transferred to OCBC Bank.In March 2020, OCBC announced its partnership with Xero, a New Zealand-based cloud accounting software, to help small and medium-sized enterprise customers digitise their operations. In July 2020, OCBC launched HealthPass, a healthcare mobile application that aims to connect patients with medical doctors in Singapore via online consultation.
On 3 September 2024, OCBC announced that it would soon allow children aged 7 to 15 to have their own bank account, operate their bank account digitally, and to have their own debit card. It stated that this OCBC MyOwn Account would be registered solely in the name of the child, but would only be operable "within boundaries and controls set by parents". The service would be launched less than a month later on 20 October 2024.
Shareholders
The ten largest shareholders as of 8 March 2021 were:| Name of Shareholders | No. of shares held | %* | |
| 1. | Citibank Nominees Singapore Pte Ltd | 705,234,459 | 15.76 |
| 2. | DBS Nominees Ltd | 481,599,607 | 10.76 |
| 3. | Selat Ltd | 466,981,882 | 10.43 |
| 4. | DBSN Services Pte Ltd | 288,391,324 | 6.44 |
| 5. | HSBC Nominees Pte Ltd | 209,467,354 | 4.68 |
| 6. | Lee Foundation | 198,210,257 | 4.43 |
| 7. | Singapore Investments Pte Ltd | 157,007,526 | 3.51 |
| 8. | Lee Rubber Company Ltd | 141,656,364 | 3.17 |
| 9. | Herald Investment Ltd | 101,975,411 | 2.28 |
| 10 | Raffles Nominees Ltd | 79,791,356 | 1.78 |
''* Percentage is calculated based on the total number of issued ordinary shares, excluding treasury shares.''
Subsidiaries
OCBC Securities
OCBC Securities Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank, and is a member of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and the Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited. It was established in 1986.Great Eastern Holdings
In 2004, OCBC acquired Great Eastern Holdings following a voluntary cash offer. GEH had S$53.1 billion in assets and 3.8 million policyholders as at 30 September 2010. GEH operates two distribution channels – the tied agency force and bancassurance. The company also operates in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. In October 2024, OCBC upped its stake in insurance arm Great Eastern Holdings to 93.72% after making a privatisation bid for the insurer.Lion Global Investors (LGI)
In September 2005, OCBC Asset Management Limited and Straits Lion Asset Management Limited merged to form Lion Capital Management. In 2008, Lion Capital Management was renamed as Lion Global Investors. The Brunei Branch of Lion Global Investors also began operations. Lion Global Investors had total assets under management of S$69.9 billion as of 31 March 2023.Lion Global Investors Limited is 70% owned by Great Eastern Holdings Limited and 30% owned by Orient Holdings Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank.
Bank of Singapore
Bank of Singapore,, is a wholly owned private banking subsidiary of OCBC. Following OCBC's acquisition of ING Asia Private Bank in October 2009, Bank of Singapore was formed on 29 January 2010 from the combination of ING Asia Private Bank and OCBC Private Bank. With branches in Hong Kong and Dubai and a representative office in Makati City, Bank of Singapore serves high-net-worth individuals and wealthy families of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Middle East and Europe, as well as global Non-Resident Indians.Singapore Island Bank
Singapore Island Bank was formerly known as Bank of Singapore which housed the division, finatiQ, set up by OCBC Bank in 2000 as a self-service online bank during the dot-com bubble.On 29 January 2010, OCBC completed its acquisition of ING Asia Private Bank and renamed it Bank of Singapore. Therefore, OCBC renamed the bank that housed finatiQ, Singapore Island Bank to differentiate these two separate businesses to avoid confusion. As an online-only service provider of OCBC Bank, finatiQ could no longer meet the growing needs of the bank's customers and had ceased business on 30 June 2011.
Bank OCBC NISP
In 2004, OCBC Bank acquired a 22.5% stake in PT Bank NISP Tbk, its joint-venture partner in PT OCBC Indonesia since 1996. With the completion of this transaction, Bank NISP became an associate company of OCBC Bank. Bank NISP was ranked the 11th largest Indonesian bank by assets and had a network of 135 branches and offices and, over 3,000 shared ATMs.In the same year, OCBC Bank purchased an additional 28.5% stake in Bank NISP, raising its shareholding in Bank NISP to 51%. OCBC Bank subsequently raised its stake to 70.62% in 2005. By 2008, it had increased its stake in Bank NISP to 74.73%. In 2008, Bank NISP changed its name to Bank OCBC NISP.
As of 30 September 2010, Bank OCBC NISP had 5,995 employees, total assets of Rp 40.2 trillion, and served customers through a network of 411 offices in 62 cities and 576 ATMs throughout Indonesia. Its customers could also use more than 37,500 ATMs. Subsequently, in November 2010, OCBC Indonesia merged with OCBC NISP.