Bank of Singapore targets doubling assets to US$46bln

OCBC's private banking arm capitalises parent company’s strong base in Southeast Asia to achieve its goal.

"There is a lot of low-hanging fruit," said Renato de Guzman, who heads the new unit formed after Singapore's second-biggest lender bought the Asian private banking business of ING.

"You have an engine in terms of client acquisitions, you are a well-established brand, things that are important for private banking. Then you bring the expertise that ING has in terms of the range of products."

De Guzman, who built ING's private banking business in the region, said he could add an additional 100 private bankers over the next three years, bringing the total to 300. He would recruit a lot of the new bankers from within the OCBC Group.

View the full report in Money Control.