New managing director of OCBC Securities to lead charge in boosting digital trading capabilities

OCBC on Sunday announced the appointment of Wilson He as managing director of its wholly-owned stockbroking subsidiary, OCBC Securities.

He takes over from Dennis Hong, who is now Bank of Singapore's market head for Greater China.

With over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry, Mr He will take the lead in the strengthening the brokerage's digital capabilities. He joined OCBC Securities in April, just when the company was dealing with changes brought about by the pandemic, said the bank in a statement. (see amendment note)

OCBC's deputy president and chairman of OCBC Securities Ching Wei Hong said: "Wilson's strength in the digital sphere is a valuable asset as OCBC Securities ramps up its digital transformation efforts. The pandemic has underscored the need for our securities platforms to be easily accessible online or on mobile. In the past few months, we saw a marked increase in people trading online. It is therefore critical for us to continually improve our digital offerings."

OCBC's online trading has accounted for over 70 per cent of total trade transactions so far in 2020, up from just 50 per cent last year. Trading volumes also grew by 80 per cent since the onset of the virus outbreak.

With online trading set to see sustained interest, OCBC Securities has increased its investment into digital capabilities by more than 50 per cent in 2021, with a focus on upgrading its existing digital trading platform, iOCBC.

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Next year, iOCBC will be integrated with OCBC's retail-banking platform in a bid to enhance its digital offerings. For instance, the order placement process will be halved, and the search function optimised with an auto-complete predictive feature, so it can handle additional search parameters such as product codes.

OCBC Securities will also look to offer customers greater access to global stock exchanges. This comes as profits from global stock exchanges for the first nine months of 2020 accounted for 40 per cent of its business, up from just 11 per cent in 2010.

Mr Ching said: "Since Wilson joined us in April, his experience and insights have helped to shape the strategic direction of OCBC Securities as the brokerage business transforms globally with digitalisation. I am confident that he will drive innovation in our digital channels."

Mr He began his career at Deloitte & Touche as an auditor. He is a chartered accountant in Singapore and also a fellow member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK.

He was subsequently with PhillipCapital Group for seven years, where he served as head of e-business for Phillip Securities, spearheading the brokerage's retail online trading platform.

Before joining OCBC, he was the regional head of online trading at CGS-CIMB Securities, where he was responsible for the retail-broking business in Singapore. He also led a task force to strengthen the collaboration between CGS-CIMB Group and China Galaxy Securities, one of China's largest brokerages.

Amendment note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Mr He has 17 years of experience in the financial industry and that OCBC Securities' trading volumes grew by 77 per cent since the onset of the pandemic. OCBC has since corrected its release and said that Mr He has 18 years of experience and that trading volumes in fact grew by 80 per cent. The article above has been revised to reflect this.