Still ‘more things to be done’ to reap synergies across OCBC: deputy CEO Tan Teck Long

[SINGAPORE] OCBC’s incoming chief executive wants to continue building on the bank’s cross-selling and integration strategy.

“We are an integrated financial services group, so there will be synergies to be reaped from working better together,” said Tan Teck Long, deputy CEO and head of global wholesale banking at OCBC, in an interview with The Business Times.

Under outgoing CEO Helen Wong, OCBC embarked on a corporate strategy refresh in 2022 that focused on capturing Asean-Greater China trade and investment flows and rising Asian wealth.

This is done through its “one group” approach – it is looking to integrate customer experience and tap synergies within the group to drive growth and efficiency.

Tan said the bank has managed to get synergies out of its first three-year strategy, but “there are more things to be done”.

“We are in a very privileged position – we have an insurance business of scale, banking operations, and a wealth and asset management business,” he said.

“There’s still a next level of collaboration we can think about.”

Wholesale banking targets met

Currently, Tan is still focused on meeting OCBC’s target to add S$3 billion in revenue by 2025, through its focus on the Asean-Greater China region across its business segments.

But as the incoming CEO of the bank, he is also looking across functions to understand other parts of the business, while charting a new strategy.

Tan is still optimistic about the growth prospects of the Asean region, especially when it comes to investments from the Greater China region.

He noted that his wholesale banking business had already met most of the targets that he had set in 2023 as part of the corporate refresh.

It exceeded its transaction banking target in Greater China two years ahead of time, with close to 600 regional mandates secured as at June 2025. It originally aimed to achieve more than 500 regional mandates for cash management by 2027.

The bank’s plan to double investment banking revenue in the Greater China region by end-2025 is also on track, with key drivers in syndicated loans and bond issuances.

In addition, OCBC targeted a more than 50 per cent increase in its Greater China franchise revenue in Asean by 2025 – it had achieved this target ahead of time for the past two consecutive years, and expects it will be on track to achieve it again by end-2025.

Meanwhile, the bank expects to have doubled its acquisition of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers by end-2025, compared with 2023. It planned to get more than 26,000 new SME customers from 2023 to 2025.

Even though Chinese customers are currently taking a pause because of the uncertainty around tariffs, they are still very interested in South-east Asia in the mid to longer term, Tan said.

The region not only has geographical proximity to China, it also has an attractive market in terms of both natural resources and demographics, he said.

The China plus one story also remains intact, he added.

Companies still have an objective to diversify their operations for supply chain resilience, and South-east Asia is a “very attractive place” for that purpose.

“For all investment decisions, there are other things to consider, such as the competitive advantage of the country they invest in, political stability, transportation and logistics,” he said.

Tariff impact

Whether countries emerge as winners or losers will depend on the difference in tariffs within the region, Tan said.

He expects that as long as the whole Asean is in the same tariff range, it will not affect the decision to invest in a particular country.

For OCBC, loan growth remained healthy even after US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day”, driven by industries that derived demand domestically or from the region.

Clients are still active, albeit cautious, about their longer-term investment decisions, he said.

Nevertheless, companies involved in exports have experienced a slowdown. Tan said: “Our advice to them is to let the air be clear before they make the investment decision.”

But overall, there is still global trade and consumption going on outside of the US, he noted.

“To that extent, (even though) the US imposed tariffs, I expect the intra-Asia trade to continue to grow.”

Structurally, it is also difficult to bring all manufacturing back into the US.

“Also, there’s no need to, because not every industry is equal in terms of importance to the US. So maybe they would bring back some sensitive industries. But generally, for most industries, it makes sense to actually look at sourcing from outside the US,” he said.

Furthermore, China remains a manufacturing juggernaut, he said.

“So to diversify away from China, you actually need multiple countries or even multiple regions… So from that perspective, South-east Asia is definitely a region which is attractive to investors.”