Bank of S'pore makes a mega comeback

BOS is now the only stand-alone, fully licensed private bank here

By Robin Chan

AFTER months of secret talks, OCBC has settled on a completely different brand name for its recently expanded mega private banking arm, sources say.

The new brand is: the Bank of Singapore (BOS), although it is a name OCBC has owned for more than 50 years and has used before.

The local bank stunned the market last October with a US$1.5 billion (S$2.1 billion) acquisition of Dutch bank ING's Asian private banking assets.

Since then, the proposed new image and name of the merged operations have been tightly held by senior management.

OCBC's current private banking operations are known as OCBC Private Bank.

Sources have told The Straits Times that the BOS name has been confirmed after extensive planning and tests on customers.

OCBC is putting together the final touches to its rebranding exercise.

The surprise marriage of local bank OCBC and the globally well-known ING brand left the bank with a dilemma as to how to position its merged operations.

A banker familiar with the project said it was a good move as OCBC could use the name to capitalise on the Republic's burgeoning reputation as a private banking hub - on a par with Switzerland.

The name had been tested on existing private banking customers and was well-received, and was also signed off on by prominent Filipino banker Renato 'Bing' de Guzman, the new outfit's chief executive, formerly head of ING Asia Private Bank (IAPB).

The renaming of IAPB also makes BOS the only stand-alone, fully licensed private bank in Singapore.

The BOS name was incorporated in 1954 as a wholly owned OCBC unit with a single branch in Cecil Street.

Amid the e-commerce frenzy at the turn of the century, the branch was shut and OCBC's Internet banking services were relaunched in 2000 as BOS.

OCBC's then chief executive, Mr Alex Au, said at the time it would mark the start of BOS' drive to become a globally recognised financial brand.

There were even plans to list it separately within five years, although that never came to fruition.

In fact, within two years, two of its three main operations - a venture capital arm and e-banking services for businesses - were closed, leaving just its consumer business finatiQ, which exists today with about 3,000 customers.

The Straits Times understands that while finatiQ will not be affected, its parent company will be given a new name.

OCBC has been on the offensive since it beat seven bidders for ING in a gutsy move analysts have praised for propelling the local bank into the ranks of the region's top wealth managers, in a growing private wealth market.

It doled out hefty retention packages to all 150 of ING's private bankers to add to its existing pool of 50 private bankers.

Sources said the bank has also been poaching bankers from rivals.

It was the biggest acquisition by a Singapore bank since OCBC paid $2.8 billion to raise its stake in insurer Great Eastern Holdings from 49 per cent to 81 per cent six years ago.

The deal boosted OCBC's private banking assets under management to US$22.5 billion from US$6.7 billion while adding over 5,000 private banking clients to OCBC's 2,500.

Less than a fifth of IAPB's client assets are from the South-east Asian countries - mainly Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia - that contribute 90 per cent of OCBC's private-banking client assets.

Source: Straits Times, 28 Jan 2010.