OCBC and Temasek Polytechnic are starting an initiative to train up to 200 of the bank's employees to become cyber-risk analysts and cyber security specialists over the next three years.

This is part of OCBC's Future Smart programme, a $20 million undertaking to reskill its employees announced in May last year.

The initiative announced yesterday will focus on four main areas: digital services and solutions, software development, risk and assurance, and security operations and monitoring.

It will involve lecturers from Temasek Poly's School of Informatics & IT, collaborating with OCBC on subjects like risk management, audit and cyber security.

OCBC head of group risk management Vincent Choo said: "At OCBC, we strongly believe that people will be the most important line of defence against potential threats. The bank takes great efforts to ensure that our people are trained to deal with existing and emerging risks."

OCBC and Ngee Ann Polytechnic created a data certification programme in July as part of the Future Smart programme to groom more data scientists and analysts. OCBC employees can sign up for these courses.

OCBC said at the time that it aims to train 200 more data scientists and analysts over the next three years to double the number of these experts that it has now.

Temasek Poly has also partnered government agencies and software providers to develop curriculum and training in reverse-malware engineering, digital security and digital forensics.