OCBC consumer banking chief Sunny Quek aims to double wealth business by 2029

[​SINGAPORE] OCBC head of global consumer financial services Sunny Quek has big ambitions.

After doubling the lender’s consumer banking wealth business since he stepped into his current role in 2022, he is ready to do it again – this time from a bigger base.

“I’m going to double this business again by 2029,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Business Times. “My original target was to double our wealth business by 2030. Now, I think we can do it faster.”

It is a bold statement to make, in a market filled with similar promises. But as a 30-year veteran of the banking industry, Quek knows the odds.

He has spent 14 years at OCBC, where he has seen three group chief executives come and go. He has lived through the usual cycles of grand banking strategies and corporate reshuffles.

Yet, he strongly believes the bank has finally found the right tool to force actual change: its newly minted wealth management committee.

“My confidence comes from the experience I’ve had in the last four months with the wealth management committee,” he said. “I can feel the difference.”

​The wealth management committee took shape at the start of 2026. It is the main engine powering new group chief executive Tan Teck Long’s “Next Frontier” strategy, as the bank pivots towards a “whole-of-wealth” model.

​Tan designed the committee to tear down historic walls dividing the consumer bank, private wealth arm, and insurance unit. It compels OCBC’s consumer banking head to sit at the same table with the CEOs of Bank of Singapore and Great Eastern.

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The central mandate forces these divisions to operate under shared financial targets. It ensures they stop fighting over the same lucrative clients and start pooling their resources to lock in regional assets.

Tan chairs the group, and having the chief executive in the room means everyone faces real consequences if they fail to align.

Structural advantage

​Quek acknowledged, however, that almost every financial institution has drawn up similar playbooks.

​“All of us have a wealth strategy. What’s really going to differentiate one bank from another is the execution,” he said.

And ​OCBC has a clear structural advantage in Singapore: it owns an insurance company.

“No other Singapore bank has that,” Quek said. “An insurer’s CEO does not sit in a committee with other banking heads; they are not part of that value chain. For us, however, whatever is built by any of the three of us is built for the whole group.”

This means the bank pulls all three entities together under unified leadership, unlike its peers, Quek said.

If they can get the banking app to talk seamlessly to the insurance database without duplicating costs, they might just have a winning formula.

But Quek will have his work cut out for him – the base he intends to double is already massive.

The bank’s full-year performance for 2025 also laid down a formidable bedrock of wealth momentum.

Lifted by income growth across the wealth continuum, group wealth management income soared 14 per cent to a record S$5.6 billion in 2025. This lucrative segment now represents 38 per cent of the group’s entire income, which rose a record S$14.6 billion.

​A key driver was wealth management fees. These surged 33 per cent to an all-time high, and drove a 22 per cent increase in total net fee income to S$2.4 billion.

The bank scooped up more assets, and rode on positive market valuation to push its banking wealth assets under management (AUM) up 15 per cent to S$343 billion.

​Digital channels saw even sharper spikes during the year. Digital wealth revenue in the city-state surged by over 80 per cent. Even gold and silver are glittering brighter, with precious metals revenue rocketing more than eight times year on year.

Regional push

​The hunger for wealth extends well beyond Singapore’s borders. The city-state’s offshore wealth fees grew more than 30 per cent.

Hong Kong, the other half of OCBC’s “twin hubs” strategy, grew its Premier Banking customers by more than 30 per cent; offshore customers there expanded by over 40 per cent.

In Malaysia, wealth fees grew more than 10 per cent, accompanied by a near 15 per cent rise in new affluent customers.

To service this regional influx, the bank plans to hire close to 250 relationship managers in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Not content with organic growth, the bank is also making a grab for scale in South-east Asia’s largest economy.

On May 4, it announced that its Indonesian subsidiary had agreed to acquire the retail banking and wealth management operations of Bank HSBC Indonesia, in a deal which instantly injected 336,000 customers into the OCBC Indonesia franchise.

It brings across S$6.6 billion in AUM. This sizeable chunk of wealth includes S$4.3 billion in customer investments in mutual funds, bonds and insurance, along with S$2.3 billion in deposits.

When completed in the second quarter of 2027, the move will boost OCBC Indonesia’s AUM by 25 per cent and add about 1,300 staff to its talent pool. It firmly anchors the bank’s ambitions in a critical regional market.

​Momentum is certainly building for this overarching strategy. The traction was clearly visible in OCBC’s Q1 financial results released on May 8. This was the first quarter since the wealth management committee convened and Tan’s Next Frontier strategy was put in place.

The lender posted a 5 per cent rise in net profit to S$2 billion for the three months ended Mar 31, neatly beating market estimates.

While a lower interest rate environment dragged net interest income down by 5 per cent to S$2.2 billion, wealth management was the undeniable hero of the quarter as record-high non-interest income plugged the gap.

Wealth fees in Q1 surged 34 per cent to S$422 million, driven by robust customer activity across all channels. Overall wealth management income climbed 11 per cent to S$1.5 billion, representing 39 per cent of the group’s total income.

The chief executive explicitly called out this wealth-led performance as crucial support against geopolitical tensions and inflation risks.

Shifting attitudes

​OCBC’s pivot comes amid shifting consumer attitudes towards wealth. As digital platforms democratise market access, younger consumers expect to start their investment journeys earlier, with far less capital.

​“Consumers don’t think about their life goals holistically,” Quek said. “You often hear: ‘I’m too poor to think about retirement’...

“What we are seeing globally, not just in Singapore, is the growing need for better financial literacy, earlier retirement planning, and much more structured wealth advice across different life stages,” he added. “These trends are reshaping how we think about wealth management.”

​The bank is adapting its tools to capture this new generation. Its mobile app now offers fractional investment solutions to sharply lower the barrier to entry.

Customers can start small with products such as the Blue Chip Investment Plan, RoboInvest, unit trusts and even fractions of precious metals down to 0.1 grams of gold.

The goal is to hook customers early and use the new committee structure to seamlessly pass them up the wealth chain as their assets grow.

​While digital channels provide the volume, Quek stresses that managing significant wealth remains deeply rooted in trust and human advice. To execute its ambitious plans on the ground, OCBC is heavily equipping its relationship managers with advanced tools.

​The bank recently rolled out an artificial intelligence training programme for its wealth advisors, and the early results underscore Quek’s confidence about execution.

Advisers who completed the programme booked twice as many client appointments as their peers. Their monthly revenues jumped 50 per cent from that in the three months prior to the training.

Indeed, changing entrenched corporate culture and erasing silo mentalities take significant time and are a massive undertaking.

With a firm hand from the top, a clear road map for South-east Asia, and a fresh war chest of Indonesian assets, OCBC is laying the groundwork.

But while the mandate to double the consumer wealth business by 2029 sets a high bar, Quek sees a clear path forward. And if his infectious confidence spreads, that ambitious target could be well within reach.