Bank of Singapore has been on a hiring spree over the past year to buttress its already stellar business catering to the high and ultra-high net-worth wealthy segments.
Case in point: in May 2022, BOS hired Christine Wong as head of wealth planning for Greater China and north Asia. Wong, a veteran of Credit Suisse, HSBC Private Bank and Edmond de Rothschild, is charged with expanding BOS’s wealth planning, trust offerings and family office business around the region.
In June 2022, BOS hired Guo Jiawen from UBS as a senior wealth planner in Singapore.
The signal from these additions and others, says Paul Chua, global head of wealth planning, is how BOS is determined to be the partner of choice for clients, hiring the best talent so it can grow, manage and protect family assets and legacy over time.
In January 2023, though, BOS made the biggest staffing announcement of all. It named Jason Moo, formerly of Julius Baer and Goldman Sachs, as its new CEO with effect from March. Moo took over from Bahren Shaari, who had more than doubled BOS’s assets under management from $51 billion in 2005 to $110 billion.
While Moo has his work cut out at a time of great uncertainty in global markets, BOS’s new hires may help smooth both the transition and the upshift in the bank’s regional ambitions.
This speaks to the BOS strategy to stand out in an increasingly crowded industry by leveraging its strong regional know-how and global perspective to make the case for new clients.
Until now, BOS, which is the private banking arm of Singapore’s OCBC Bank, succeeded with innovative and bespoke solutions that are the foundations for success. But as competition heats up across Asia, BOS is moving further afield into many of southeast Asia’s most vibrant markets.
In the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, BOS has been bolstering its market share and accelerated investments into everything from family offices and digital to tailor-made solutions for ultra-high net-worth and the next-generation cohort.
Deep ties beyond Singapore – and the ability to harness those fast-growing markets – is among the reasons why UHNW clients stick with BOS, generation after generation.