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Bank of Singapore to keep hiring in hunt for growth, CEO says

Bloomberg Published on Thu, Jun 01, 2017 / 11:16 AM GMT+8

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SINGAPORE (June 1): Bank of Singapore, which recently broke into the ranks of Asia’s top 10 private banks, intends to keep hiring more relationship managers and focus on serving a wealthier bracket of customers to keep expanding its assets under management.

The unit of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. added 20 relationship managers in Hong Kong this year, taking its total to slightly more than 400, Chief Executive Officer Bahren Shaari said in an interview on Wednesday. The minimum amount a client must keep with the firm to qualify for its private-banking services will eventually be raised to US$5 million ($6.9 million)in a few years’ time, from US$2 million currently, he said.

Under the 55-year-old’s leadership, Bank of Singapore took over Barclays Plc’s wealth units in Hong Kong and Singapore last year, allowing it to end 2016 as the seventh-ranked private bank in the region in terms of assets under management, according to Asian Private Banker. The bank aspires to become top three in Asia for profitability, rather than just growing asset size, Shaari said.