OCBC Bank unveils head office in Shanghai

SINGAPORE - Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC Bank), one of Singapore's largest home- grown banks, opened its corporate office in Shanghai's financial district of Pudong, signaling its commitment to China's market, the OCBC bank announced on Thursday.

The so-called OCBC Tower, with a total investment of 1 billion yuan ($163 million), is the OCBC Bank's largest fixed asset investment to date in China. It serves as the head office of its fully-owned subsidiary OCBC China, providing for 18,000 square meters of office space.

Cheong Choong Kong, Chairman of OCBC Bank, said the new head office "signals our unequivocal commitment to further deepening our presence in this market."

"Within China, we have been steadily increasing our distribution footprint to serve both our retail and corporate customers. China's ongoing economic transformation and financial sector reform will benefit financial institutions such as OCBC that are deeply invested here. We will continue to make inroads in this market as we grow our business," he added.

The OCBC Bank said its subsidiary OCBC China has grown its customer base more than six times between 2008 and last year. Its full-year revenue last year reached 1 billion yuan ($163 million), more than double that of 2008.

Total assets of OCBC China, as at end June this year, was 48.3 billion yuan ($7.89 billion), three times what it was at the end of 2008. Meanwhile, its staff strength has also increased from about 400 in 2008 to the more than 800 employees across the country today.

OCBC Bank firstly opened a branch in China's Xiamen in 1925. When OCBC China commenced business in August 2007 as a local incorporation, it has ramped up its presence in the country to include 16 branches and sub-branches across nine cities.

China and the Greater China region as a whole, Malaysia and Indonesia are three main markets that the OCBC Bank has earmarked for future expansion and growth outside Singapore.

Local paper The Business Times quoted Samuel Tsien, the CEO of OCBC Bank and Chairman of OCBC China, as saying that greater China contributes more than 6 percent to group earnings, and that it has "the potential to increase its contribution to the mid-teens."

In January, Shanghai announced the setting up of a free trade zone where banks are likely to be given more leeway to pursue their business. OCBC is interested in having a presence there once the rules are out, he said.