OCBC sees strong trade flows between Greater China and Asean despite tariff uncertainties

SINGAPORE - OCBC Bank on May 16 said it continues to see strong Greater China-Asean trade flows despite economic headwinds posed by ongoing US tariffs.

“If you look at Asean and Greater China as a whole, we continue to see flows between Greater China and Asean,” group chief executive Helen Wong said at a media briefing in Hong Kong on May 16.

“If China has a trade discussion with the West, it’s not surprising that it is dealing more with (other parts of) Asia,” she said.

The US and China on May 12

agreed to drastically slash tariffs

on each other’s goods for an initial 90-day period.

Ms Wong said the bank saw many companies, including those in China, going to Asean.

There are opportunities in certain sectors such as shipping for infrastructure builds, with Singapore building Changi Airport’s fifth terminal and Marina Bay Sands’ expansion project.

In Johor, there are also opportunities to use some of the land for data centres as the world continues to go deeper into artificial intelligence, cloud computing and quantum computing, she said.

On whether she is positive about OCBC’s performance, she said she is “cautiously maintaining a stable view; in a way (the bank) needs to prepare for a worse time”.

For the first quarter, OCBC Hong Kong said that collaboration revenue with Asean surged 17 per cent year on year.

Revenue for Hong Kong and Macau grew 14 per cent in the quarter from a year earlier to HK$1.9 billion (S$315 million).

This is higher than the 11 per cent revenue growth logged in 2024 as compared with 2023, the bank said.

Moving ahead, OCBC aims to continue capturing Greater China-Asean growth opportunities by boosting trade and investment in the two regions and strengthening core competencies through digitalisation and liquidity management.

The bank will also tap growth from new economy and high growth sectors and step up support for corporate and commercial clients as well as financial institutions in Macau.

To attract small and medium-sized enterprises, OCBC has worked towards allowing them to open business accounts as soon as within a working day and offering support from industry specialists for onboarding and product education.

The number of premier banking customers in Hong Kong and Macau was up 30 per cent year on year in the first quarter, while those in mainland China jumped 60 per cent year on year.

Mr Wang Ke, head of Greater China and CEO of OCBC Hong Kong, said that one key success factor for the wealth business is to offer a complete wealth solution to meet a variety of customer needs.

“In the first quarter of this year, given the equity market was doing very well in Hong Kong, we see our customers are more interested in equity-linked products, as well as investment-oriented insurance products,” he said.

But after US President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2, he saw that the “very agile” Hong Kong customers moved quickly into bond and insurance products.

Bank of Singapore (BOS), the private banking arm of OCBC, logged a strong performance in Hong Kong in the quarter as well, with assets under management (AUM) growing 20 per cent year on year, putting it on track to meet its goal to grow AUM in Hong Kong by 50 per cent by 2026.

Revenue grew 25 per cent year on year, led by a 36 per cent growth in transaction revenue. Wealth planning revenue saw close to four times’ growth.

BOS’ Hong Kong branch said it will prioritise expanding the ultra-high-net-worth client segment and grow the financial intermediaries (FIM) business.

In the first quarter, AUM for its ultra-high-net-worth client segment in Hong Kong grew 54 per cent year on year.

“We have created a new unit to spearhead and formulate strategies for the ultra-high-net-worth segment, and we continue to identify and deliver exclusive and unique investment opportunities to our clients, and we have also actively engaged the next generation of these clients,” said Mr Rickie Chan, chief executive and head of private banking for Greater China at BOS’ Hong Kong branch.

For example, in 2024, BOS partnered Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing and Singapore Management University in Singapore to create a programme to educate participants in wealth preservation and legacy management, focusing on governance, private equity and family office strategies, among other areas.

To grow its FIM segment, the bank also launched a digital platform with fintech company iCapital to expand financial intermediaries access to alternative investments and insights.

Mr Chan said times of volatility and uncertainty present opportunities for the bank to step up.

“It’s exactly the time, when they are confused, when they are uncertain, where we can come in and add a lot of value. The past three, four months have been difficult for the investment sentiment, yet we were able to deliver quite good results,” he said.