OCBC cites compliance burden as one reason to expand private bank

Singapore

OCBC Bank's chief executive officer, Samuel Tsien, said surging compliance costs is one factor spurring him to expand his Asian wealth-management business, at a time when some overseas competitors are retreating.

That's because the rapidly expanding costs of complying with anti-money laundering, tax-compliance and other regulatory requirements - rising by 35 per cent annually across the whole bank - need to be spread out across as many fee-generating clients as possible, according to Mr Tsien.

"For us, it is very important to continue to build up the scale in this business," Mr Tsien said in an interview this week. "Even if you have a smaller scale of wealth-management busine…