SINGAPORE – OCBC will create a new division called Group Strategy, Innovation and Sustainability to further strengthen the bank’s strategic focus and generate growth.
The new unit, which will be set up on April 22, will be helmed by Ms Elaine Heng, currently chief executive officer for retail business and deputy group CEO at FairPrice Group (FPG).
Ms Helen Wong, group CEO of OCBC, said the new unit is another key milestone in the bank’s transformation journey.
She said the new unit would add value by helping to future-proof OCBC’s businesses, bring to fruition cutting-edge business ideas and models across the group, and identify and develop new business growth engines.
Mr Mike Ng, the bank’s chief sustainability officer, will work closely with Ms Heng.
Ms Heng has “achieved a solid track record of spearheading innovative practices and business transformation to drive growth in a disruptive environment”, OCBC said in a release on Feb 27.
FPG comprises the NTUC (National Trades Union Congress) FairPrice chain of supermarkets, NTUC Foodfare and Kopitiam chain of food and beverage outlets, as well as NTUC Link, one of Singapore’s largest rewards programmes.
The group has a footprint of close to 570 consumer touchpoints, employs over 14,000 staff and has an annual turnover of over $4.5 billion.
Ms Heng led a milestone project on behalf of FPG and NTUC Enterprise to launch digital bank Trust Bank into the suite of offerings from the group. Within nine months of its launch, Trust Bank has captured more than 10 per cent of Singapore’s population.
Prior to joining FPG in 2017, Ms Heng spent close to 20 years in banking, with 15 of them at Standard Chartered Bank.
Her banking expertise included consumer banking, small and medium-sized enterprises banking, digital banking, strategic planning and talent development.
The announcement is the latest in a concerted series of moves by OCBC to drive its corporate strategy. In 2023, Ms Wong said the group could deliver an additional $3 billion in incremental revenue by 2025 on top of its prevailing growth trajectory.
The optimism was fuelled by the bank’s efforts to unify its brand across its core markets of China and South-east Asia, and to capture growth opportunities, including those in wealth management and private banking.
On Feb 26, OCBC’s insurance arm, Great Eastern, posted a net profit of $337.4 million for the second half of the year ended Dec 31, 2023, down by 13 per cent from $385.9 million a year earlier. For the full year 2023, Great Eastern’s net profit rose by 27 per cent to $774.6 million.
OCBC is scheduled to unveil its 2023 earnings before trading starts on Feb 28.
On Feb 27, OCBC closed at $13.31 a share, down two cents from Feb 26, while Great Eastern ended at $17.77, down 16 cents.
