OCBC Bank

OCBC Securities Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank, and is a member of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX-ST) and the Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited (SGX-DT). It was established in 1986.

In 2004, OCBC acquired Great Eastern Holdings (GEH) following a voluntary cash offer. GEH had $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. On 19 June 2023, OCBC upped its stake in insurance arm Great Eastern Holdings to 88.4%.[24]

In September 2005, OCBC Asset Management Limited (the asset management arm of OCBC Bank) and Straits Lion Asset Management Limited (the asset management arm of Great Eastern) 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 at 31 March 2023.[25]

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.[26]

Bank of Singapore, (formerly ING Asia Private Bank), is a wholly owned private banking subsidiary of OCBC 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. OCBC acquired ING Asia Private Bank on 29 January 2010[27] and renamed it Bank of Singapore.[28]

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 Bank 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.[29] 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.[30]

In 2004, OCBC Bank acquired a 22.5% stake in PT Bank NISP Tbk ("Bank NISP"), 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 (including ATMs belonging to ATM Bersama, Bank Central Asia, OCBC Bank in Singapore, and BankCard in Malaysia). Subsequently, in November 2010, OCBC Indonesia merged with OCBC NISP.[31]

OCBC wholly owns OCBC Al-Amin Bank, which offers Islamic banking products and services in Malaysia. OCBC had offered Islamic banking products and services since 1995. Finally, on 1 December 2008 OCBC launched OCBC Al-Amin Bank Berhad. OCBC Al-Amin offers products and services based on the applicable Shariah contract and with the endorsement of the Shariah Advisory Committee.

OCBC China has 17 branches on the mainland and in Hong Kong. OCBC's presence in China dates back to 1925 when it opened a branch in Xiamen. In 2007 OCBC established its wholly owned subsidiary with headquarters in Shanghai.

In March 2014, OCBC Bank offered to pay nearly US$5 Billion for Wing Hang Bank, one of Hong Kong's last family-owned banks.[32] Wing Hang was the eighth-largest lender in Hong Kong. Under the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance, OCBC Bank, with 97.52 percent of Wing Hang's shares, compulsorily acquired Wing Hang on 29 July 2014.

On 1 October 2014, Wing Hang Bank was rebranded as OCBC Wing Hang Bank to reflect its integration into the OCBC family.[33]

On 3 July 2023, OCBC Wing Hang Bank Limited has further changed its name to "OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) Limited" and in Macau, "Banco OCBC Weng Hang, S.A.", has changed its name to "Banco OCBC (Macau), S.A." "Wing Hang" or "Weng Hang" is no longer in the legal names of both OCBC HK & Macau subsidiaries.

In November 1960, OCBC established an investment holding company named as Select Securities Limited. The company is based in Hong Kong and operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank.[34] Select Securities Limited has been dissolved and ceased to be a subsidiary of OCBC Bank with effect from 22 March 2016.[35]

In 2006, OCBC Bank first acquired a 12.2% equity holding in China's Ningbo Commercial Bank. OCBC Bank subsequently raised its stake in the renamed Bank of Ningbo to 20% in 2014.[36]

In December 2021, nearly 470 customers of OCBC lost a combined S$8.5 million after fallen prey to phishing scams involving OCBC, when scammers took advantage of old short message service (SMS) technology to impersonate the bank to send unsolicited SMSes and dupe victims into handing over their online banking log-in details.[37] OCBC later announced in January 2022 that it will make "full goodwill payouts" to all victims.[38]

In June 2023, OCBC was fined S$600,000 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for breaching anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing rules, in a matter related to the German payments provider Wirecard scandal between June 2015 and January 2016 relating to accounts maintained by one corporate customer.[39] OCBC had failed to inquire into the background and purpose of transactions that were not consistent with its knowledge of the customer, or were unusually large and exhibited an unusual pattern that had no apparent economic purpose. The bank also failed to probe into the customer’s ownership and control structure when its declared beneficial owner was not named in its corporate registration documents.[40]