Tsien banks on OCBC’s universal ambitions

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Tsien banks on OCBC’s universal ambitions

The CEO of OCBC wants to show the Asian market that the bank is a force to be reckoned with outside Singapore, across all areas of financial services. A big acquisition in Hong Kong has made the market sit up and take notice.

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Samuel Tsien OCBC

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The rise of the regional banks in Asia Pacific has been one of the biggest trends in this part of the world following the global financial crisis. The weakening of the large international banks and the resulting pullback left regionals such as Singapore’s OCBC with an opportunity to expand and develop, both at home and abroad.

This opportunity has been grabbed with both hands by OCBC bank group CEO, Samuel Tsien, who oversaw a great year for the bank in 2014: it made a large acquisition in the shape of Wing Hang and posted impressive profit figures. 

Euromoney recognised these achievements and gave the bank the best bank in Singapore award for its strategic moves and solid financials.

OCBC boosted its profit before tax to $4.7 billion in 2014, from $3.5 billion the year before, while return on ordinary shareholders equity jumped from 11.6% to 14.8% in the same period.

“We attribute our growth in 2014 to the focus we have placed on our four core markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China as part of our corporate strategy,” says Tsien. 

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