Indonesia isn’t the easiest place for international banks to thrive. But Bank of Singapore, the private banking arm of OCBC Bank, has proved successful in racking up a growing number of private bank clients in this complicated economy.
Indonesia is Bank of Singapore’s largest market. The firm has been steadily increasing investments there in recent years to expand its market share.
The results speak for themselves. In 2022, assets under management in Indonesia rose significantly, with net new money rising an impressive 237%, year on year. Recurring income rose 4%, with the cost-to-income ratio coming in at an efficient 16% level.
One area of success is how BOS has tapped into the tech unicorn frenzy in Indonesia. Since 2021, Indonesia has created at least 14 startups valued at more than $1 billion, beating all of north Asia’s economies. To harness that wealth creation for clients, BOS collaborated with parent company OCBC.
That enabled private bank clients, at times, to get early access to promising unicorns ahead of their IPOs. So far, BOS has successfully curated solutions for technopreneurs to pull in $1 billion of net new money.
From an analytical standpoint, BOS has found a sweet spot of sorts to scope out the unique needs of Indonesia’s technopreneur segment – and to leverage partnerships to provide bespoke structuring and liquidity solutions beyond what most banks can offer.
With an in-depth understanding of the liquidity requirements of pre-IPO tech companies and its collaboration across the OCBC Group, BOS closed its first financing deal against unlisted shares last year, through which it showcased its wealth management capabilities, fulfilling clients’ wealth planning needs.
Cracking the Indonesian market has been made somewhat easier for BOS thanks to OCBC’s vast Indonesia connections – and its subsidiaries OCBC NISP, NISP Ventura, OCBC Sekuritas and Great Eastern Indonesia.
Despite the complex dynamics of the Indonesian economy, BOS succeeds with only about 30 relationship managers to service local clients. They are led by six team heads, each with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. Among them, BOS's dedicated Indonesia UHNW team consists of managing director-level RMs to deliver customized services.
Robin Heng, global market head, and Zubin Dabu, market head of Indonesia, note that BOS is working to reel in Indonesian billionaires who are ready to pass their business and wealth to the next generation. To ensure BOS handles such transitions effectively, it collaborates with OCBC NISP to offer clients end-to-end wealth management services.
The bank’s reputation for ESG investing, too, is making a strong statement to the next-gen demographic. The ranks of Indonesia’s young HNWs are demanding options with sustainability/social causes and increasingly sophisticated digital services. BOS incorporates environmental risk considerations into all governance structures and investment processes, including research, portfolio construction and risk management.