SINGAPORE — One of OCBC Bank chief executive Helen Wong's greatest contributions is being a leader who fosters collaboration across its different markets and businesses to drive synergies, say the bank's insiders.

Koh Li-San, head of funding and capital management at OCBC, said Wong believed in the value of collaboration as part of the OCBC's "One Group" strategy — an approach of operating as a unified group across various business units, entities and geographies to capitalise on the Asean-Greater China opportunity.

"She really brought people together, got everyone to work more closely and think of new ideas to reach more customers or do more cross-selling," said Koh, who worked in the CEO office for two years during Wong's tenure.

Mike Ng, group chief sustainability officer at OCBC, said Wong was able to find synergies in many areas, including sustainability.

"For example, best practices, training programmes, sustainable finance product development can be shared across divisions and entities," he said, adding that cross-collaboration became common across the group.

OCBC mainly operates across four key markets in Asia — Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China. Under its umbrella also includes private bank Bank of Singapore, insurer Great Eastern (GE) and asset manager Lion Global Investors, among others.

Koh and Ng are among staff The Straits Times interviewed following news of Wong's upcoming retirement.

They were as one in highlighting the CEO's positivity and empathy as a leader.

Lee Shyong, who works with Wong on matters relating to large corporate and institutional clients, described her leadership as a people-centric one.

"She pays you the attention. She listens to you. You feel valued, you feel seen as a person. That's very important in today's context, especially amongst the younger generation that values a more empathetic and authentic form of leadership," said Lee, who is group head of public sector, sovereign wealth and pension funds and services for global corporate banking.

Ng said Wong is a positive and resilient boss who gives strength to her colleagues in difficult times.

During the Covid-19 period, he had worked on a project which suffered supply chain disruptions. As a result, he felt bad and beat himself up over it.

Instead of blaming him, Wong gave him words of encouragement. She had said taking risks is just part of the business and no one expected Covid-19.

"As a leader, a genuine interest in people and her great sense of empathy give her what I call the superpower for others to want to do the best work to achieve the bank's vision," said Ng.

He also said the bank's sustainability task force which Wong spearheaded in her first few months in OCBC provided the seed that grew into the various initiatives and governance structures in the bank today.

Wong, who joined Singapore's second-largest bank by assets in February 2020 as deputy president and head of global wholesale banking before becoming group CEO in April 2021, is retiring on Dec 31 to spend more time with her family, after first indicating in 2024 her plans to do so.

She will be succeeded by Tan Teck Long, who will assume the CEO role on Jan 1, 2026.

For a smooth transition over the next six months, Tan, who has been head of global wholesale banking since March 2022, has assumed the additional role of deputy CEO.

Wong, 64, will remain the chairwoman of OCBC China and a director of OCBC Hong Kong post-retirement.

She has more than 40 years of banking experience — she started out as a management trainee in OCBC and was its first China desk manager, based at the Hong Kong branch.

Before returning to OCBC, she spent 27 years at HSBC, where her last role was as its CEO for Greater China, which she was appointed to in 2015.

OCBC has performed well in her years as CEO.

OCBC reported a net profit of $7.59 billion for 2024, marking an eight per cent increase compared with the previous year. This achievement represents the third consecutive year of record-breaking profits for the bank.

The strong performance was driven by robust income growth across its banking, wealth management and insurance businesses.

Wong's total pay rose to $12.8 million in 2024, a 5.8 per cent increase from the $12.1 million she earned in 2023.

Since she first took on the role of CEO on April 15, 2021, OCBC's share price has grown about 40 per cent.

In February 2025, she unveiled the largest capital return plan in OCBC's history amounting to $2.5 billion, comprising special dividends and share buybacks over two years.

In her four-year tenure as CEO, Wong also faced some challenges.

Insurer and OCBC subsidiary GE was in the spotlight earlier in July after a vote to delist it from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) fell through and a $900 million conditional exit offering made by OCBC lapsed.

OCBC said it has met its objectives with the increase in OCBC's investment in GE to 93.72 per cent in October 2024 and that this would be earnings accretive to the bank.

About half a year into her CEO stint, Wong also had to oversee the bank's response to an SMS phishing scam targeting OCBC customers that resulted in about 790 victims losing a total of $13.7 million. OCBC fully reimbursed all affected customers with goodwill payouts. The bank also implemented stronger fraud controls to prevent future occurrences.

Thanking Wong for her contributions, Andrew Lee, chairman of OCBC's board of directors, said in a July 11 statement: "Helen sharpened OCBC's competitive edge as an integrated financial services group by ushering in a well-defined corporate strategy.

"Together with the team, Helen has executed the strategy in a clear and disciplined manner. She is handing over to Teck Long a very steady ship."

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.