OCBC’s Iris Ng champions SMEs, green financing

The banker worked on making capital loans more accessible to SMEs through embedded finance. 

Iris Ng’s two-decade journey to become managing director and head of emerging business for global commercial banking at OCBC Bank began with a single goal — to work with entrepreneurs in Singapore.

“I have a particular interest in dealing with businesses,” Ng told Asian Banking & Finance by phone. “When working with businesses, it's not just the founder you interact with; there’s also the influence you have over the employees of that business. So your impact is amplified.”

Back then, small and medium enterprises (SME) did not get the attention and support they deserved from banks, she pointed out.
Part of her job involves working with government agencies, industry partners and key business leaders to equip SMEs with the knowledge, capabilities and finances to operate sustainably.  

“SMEs form a huge part of the Scope 3 emissions of large corporations,” Ng said, referring to greenhouse gas emissions that occur indirectly as a result of a company's business activities. “But a lot of SMEs do not have the means to even consider what to do regarding sustainability.”

She said OCBC was one of the first banks to offer these businesses sustainability tools, as well as knowledge and “green” loans to help them make good purchasing and investment decisions for both themselves and the environment.

She also noted the increased interconnectivity of the banking industry.

Ng said embedded finance has drastically changed when, where and how people interact with financial services, noting that nobody walks to a branch anymore just to open a bank account. 

“People are looking for banking services to embed in their buy, sell, and operation platforms. This is something that is going to shape the banking industry quite significantly.”

OCBC works with several third-party platforms that cater to the business transaction needs of SMEs. By tapping on the transaction data on the e-invoices on these platforms to assess the SMEs’ credit quality, the SMEs need not submit bank statements or financial reports. 

OCBC is able to extend same-day digital invoice financing approval to ensure the SMEs are able to access funds to ease their cash flow easilyLoan disbursement and settlement is automated by using OCBC’s Application Programming Interface (API).

The setup addresses the ever-present dilemma of SME suppliers wanting to get paid as fast as possible to meet their cash flow needs in a simplified manner, avoiding disputes and strained relationships with their customers, she said.

Supporting women
Ng credits her success to the people around her and the support system within OCBC, which has several programmes to help build up women leaders.

One of these is the W Suite, which trains senior executives and helps them develop leadership skill sets so they can act as positive role models for other women bankers, Ng said.

OCBC also has flexible work arrangements that allows better work-life balance for parents.

Ng recalled how management approved her request to start and end her work an hour earlier back in 2012 so she could pick her newborn from childcare before the rush hour. Now, at its head office at OCBC Centre, OCBC provides lactation rooms to nursing mother employees and even offers on-site childcare in the form of The Little Skool-House childcare centre. OCBC staff are offered priority places and subsidised rates.

This is a critical retention tool for many employees, especially mothers, Ng said. “You have the comfort that your child is nearby and is being taken care of.”

Ng doesn’t think women in the banking industry still suffer from misconceptions, noting that there is an equal share of men and women on the job.

At OCBC, for example, women representation is about 56%. In her leadership team, there’s only two men out of nine. “The men are a minority,” she laughed.

On the other hand, age remains an issue in the industry, though this depends largely on the urgency of a project, Ng said. “It shouldn't be because we are looking beyond maternity leaves; we are looking at how the person, whether man or woman, can contribute or is the right fit for the job.”

For customers, OCBC has the Women Unlimited Programme, which as of December 2024 has supported close to 300 women-owned businesses with about $50m in loan commitments. 

Together with OCBC Indonesia, the programme has supported about 1,600 women-owned businesses with over $500m in loan commitments, Ng said.