OCBC to pump HK$1.5bn in HK and Macau to support business growth

The Singaporean Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) is mulling to pump HK$1.5 billion in Hong Kong and Macau to upgrade its digital platform and offices to target growing banking and wealth management opportunities.

This will see an allocation of HK$1 billion on modernising OCBC Hong Kong's tech platform, aiming to standardise 90% of its channels, services, products and infrastructure by 2026.

The remaining HK$500 million will go into workplace upgrading for OCBC’s third major site in Hong Kong, said the group CEO Helen Wong at a media briefing on Wednesday.

“After these technology and digital developments are completed, our digital banking capability will increase substantially,” Wong added. “This will allow our customers to conduct online banking and trading more quickly and efficiently.”

To expand its regional engineering hub, OCBC also plans to hire 300 new software engineers in China over the next three years to support its digital transformation.

According to Wong, Greater China has been a key contributor to OCBC’s group profit, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 24% in the last decade. In fiscal 2023, Greater China contributed 21% of OCBC’s $8.4 billion in group profit before tax.

With the investment in Greater China, the bank expects to become one of the top 10 banks in Hong Kong in the next five years, with double-digit revenue growth.

For its private banking businesses in Hong Kong, the group aims to achieve a 50% rise in assets under management by 2026 from the end of 2023, said Wong.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to OCBC for more information.

Don’t miss: OCBC unifies brand to bolster ASEAN-Greater China growth

This comes as part of OCBC’s strategic planning for the Greater China market. Back in July 2023, the group unified its brand identity across its core markets with legal name changes and new logo, solidifying its “One Group” approach to capitalise on the sizeable ASEAN-Greater China opportunity.

With this sharpened ASEAN-Greater China focus, OCBC expects to accelerate its growth and deliver US$2.2bn in incremental revenue by 2025, which is on top of its current growth trajectory.

To unify the brand, legal name changes have been made for key subsidiaries. In Hong Kong, the bank is now known as OCBC Bank (Hong Kong) whereas in Macau, Banco OCBC Weng Hang has been renamed as OCBC Bank (Macau). While in China, the bank is known as OCBC Bank.

(Photo courtesy: OCBC's official LinkedIn page)

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