Singapore's bank OCBC to deliver $2.2 billion extra revenue by 2025

By Selena Li and Xie Yu

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Singapore's second-biggest lender Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) said on Monday it expects to deliver an additional revenue of S$3 billion ($2.22 billion) by 2025, after it posted a record first-quarter profit in May.

OCBC, also Southeast Asia's second-largest bank by assets, said its expectation was an outcome of its latest move of unifying its brand across its core markets of China and Southeast Asia to capture the growth opportunity there.

The bank did not disclose its 2025 total revenue target. Its total revenue in 2022 was S$11.68 billion.

"The effects of China's reopening post-pandemic, the rise of ASEAN for the China plus one strategy and other geopolitical factors have amplified this potential," Helen Wong, OCBC's group CEO, said in a statement.

Singaporean banks have also been benefiting from inflows from depositors seeking a safe haven from a global banking turmoil and uncertainty over the world economy and geopolitics.

OCBC will invest more than S$50 million over the next three years to build up its transaction banking capabilities in greater China, it said in its statement.

It targets to achieve more than 500 regional mandates for cash management over the next five years, it added.

OCBC said it also aims to double its investment banking revenue in three years.

The lender will increase the number of corporate and commercial bankers by 30% to about 400 by 2024, with some hires being for its greater China's business office, it said.

In terms of its wealth management business, OCBC targets to double the assets under management for greater China by 2025.

Jason Moo, CEO of OCBC's private banking unit - Bank of Singapore, said the bank will grow its team of relationship managers to more than 500 by 2025 from around 400 now.

OCBC is also beefing up its capabilities to serve Chinese clients, and aiming to increase the greater China related revenue in Southeast Asia by more than 50% by 2025.

OCBC said Bank of Singapore aims to increase its assets under management by more than 16% to $145 billion by end of 2025 from now, it added.

($1 = 1.3511 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Selena Li and Xie Yu in Hong Kong; Writing by Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)