Helen Wong to retire as OCBC CEO; Tan Teck Long named successor
She had informed the board last year of her intention to step down for family reasons
[SINGAPORE] In a surprise move, OCBC announced that group chief executive officer Helen Wong will retire on Dec 31, 2025, with an insider set to assume the top post.
Tan Teck Long, the bank’s current head of global wholesale banking, will succeed her on Jan 1, 2026.
Tan, 55, will immediately assume the additional role of deputy CEO, OCBC said in a bourse filing on Friday (Jul 11) after market close.
Wong, 64, joined OCBC in February 2020 as deputy president and head of global wholesale banking, and was appointed group CEO in April 2021.
She had informed the board last year of her intention to retire for family reasons, and has been spending more time in Hong Kong since the start of 2025, the bank said.
After stepping down, she will remain as chairman of OCBC China and as a director of OCBC Hong Kong.
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“The board reluctantly accepted Helen’s request to retire to spend more time with her family,” said OCBC chairman Andrew Lee.
“We thank her for agreeing to stay on to continue providing stewardship as chair of our China board and a director of the Hong Kong board, given her vast experience and deep knowledge of Greater China.”
The Hong Kong-born banker was the first woman to lead one of Singapore’s three banking giants – DBS, OCBC and UOB – and received the Outstanding Chief Executive of the Year award at the 40th Singapore Business Awards in May.
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During her tenure, Wong delivered record profits for three consecutive years, the bank said.
“Strong growth” was also recorded across OCBC’s core pillars of banking, wealth management and insurance, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent for banking net profit, 13 per cent for wealth management income, and 34 per cent for insurance profit contribution from Great Eastern Holdings (GEH), it added.
GEH is set to resume trading after a proposed delisting resolution failed to pass at its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Tuesday.
Wong, in a LinkedIn post, said after the meeting that the bank “went into the EGM already satisfied”, as it had already increased its investment in the insurer to 93.72 per cent even though its privatisation offer in 2024 failed.
However, it is likely that the failure of OCBC to take full control of its insurance subsidiary cast a pall over her tenure.
“I am very pleased to hand the baton over to Teck Long,” said Wong. “His bold leadership style, immense sense of responsibility and vision coupled with grit will steer OCBC confidently into the future.”
Tan joined OCBC as head of global wholesale banking in March 2022. He was previously chief risk officer at DBS from July 2018 to December 2021, and has more than 30 years of banking experience.
Under his three-year leadership, OCBC’s global wholesale banking division posted a CAGR of about 20 per cent in total income and 25 per cent in net profit.
Said Tan: “Helen has laid down a firm foundation, and I will be privileged to build on that.
“We will now double down on pursuing strong sustainable growth, innovation and people development as we fulfil our purpose of enabling people and communities to realise their aspirations.”
Analysts somewhat surprised
The announcement comes as somewhat of a surprise, said Thilan Wickramasinghe, Singapore head of research and regional financials at Maybank Securities.
This is given Wong’s short five-year tenure, with the bank still executing its “One Group” strategy of driving synergies across business pillars, he pointed out.
Morningstar senior equity analyst Michael Makdad also said that he “(frankly) did not anticipate this announcement at this timing”.
It is possible that Wong waited until the Great Eastern matter was settled, although that is “purely (his) speculation”, Makdad said.
He expects that a fresh pair of eyes on the overall corporate strategy could bring changes in direction, such as how much to prioritise merger-and-acquisition activities over organic growth, and how to approach shareholder distributions compared with investments.
Makdad noted that Wong’s background in Hong Kong makes her well-positioned to look after growth in that market.
“But it’s possible that OCBC’s board felt that the most pressing challenges now are elsewhere,” he noted, citing other challenges such as growth in Asean, and broader wealth management.
Meanwhile, Wickramasinghe expects that Tan’s immediate focus will be to drive OCBC’s “One Group” strategy forward and optimise its capital structure.
Shares of OCBC closed 0.9 per cent or S$0.15 higher at S$16.89 on Friday, before the announcement.
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