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The last few years have been marked by uncertainty. Geopolitical tensions, advancements in AI, and climate change are transforming the landscape at an unprecedented pace. Amidst this uncertainty, our focus did not waver, and we continued to achieve exceptional results.

We grew our assets under management (AUM) more than 14% year-on-year across our core markets. Our annual loans growth has also been healthy, increasing close to 10% regionally. Notably, wealth revenue from investments surged close to 50% from last year, setting a record high. Indeed, our wealth management business contribution, together with Bank of Singapore, is consistently close to one third of the Group's income. These good results can be attributed to the solid execution of our strategic priorities. Firstly, to accelerate acquisition. Secondly, to deepen engagement with our customers. And lastly, to grow our Premier Banking franchise.

These priorities are not new, but we doubled down on them in 2024, and it has paid off.

Sharpening our customer acquisition strategy

I constantly tell the team to be 'obsessed' with customers. This is intentionally hyperbolic to highlight just how important customer centricity is. We must constantly review and develop new product propositions to meet our customers aspirations as they progress through life's different stages. This is central to our ability to acquire new customers.

One gap in the market that we observed: a lack of digital banking options for digital natives born after 2009 – Generation Alpha. We thus conceptualised the OCBC MyOwn Account and launched it in October 2024. This marks the first time that children and teens aged seven to 15 can have a Singapore bank account and debit card in their own name. Understanding the concerns of parents and the important role that they play in terms of financial literacy, parental controls are key to this account. With such a strong proposition, we have set a bold target to open 100,000 OCBC MyOwn accounts within a year.

With one in two new-to-bank customers being onboarded digitally, the OCBC app undoubtedly plays an extremely important role in our customer acquisition strategy. It is therefore a channel that we must invest in and refresh consistently.

We did this in 2024 in a variety of ways. We introduced a customisable home page design plus new journeys for customers to open accounts and manage their finances seamlessly in Singapore. I am excited too about what we have in the pipeline. Across Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia and Malaysia, we will deliver a 'OneMobile' app experience to offer mobile-first banking for our customers, enabling a single point of service and interaction to enhance customer journeys.

I am pleased that in 2024, new-to-bank customer acquisition across our core markets grew by 15% year-on-year. We will intensify our efforts to keep the good momentum going.

Deepening engagement through collaborations and strategic partnerships

In 2024, our success was fuelled by dynamic collaborations — both within the OCBC Group and with external partners — along with our continued commitment to serving our community.

An innovative collaboration was the launch of OCBC PartnerCare, which leveraged our One Group strengths to provide a comprehensive financial and personal wellness programme. By leveraging our expertise in banking, wealth management, and insurance through Great Eastern Holdings, we offer over 35,000 property agents in Singapore various financial benefits, including discounts on Great Eastern insurance plans. This programme has enhanced our engagement with property agents, vital partners in our home loans business. More broadly, it demonstrates the power and versatility of our One Group proposition in driving business.

Another instance where the synergy between OCBC and Great Eastern Holdings has borne fruit is the Great Term Guard insurance plan. A once onerous 40-question health declaration in the sign-up process has now been reduced to a maximum of two. This is possible only because of the data exchange between the bank and Great Eastern Holdings, enabling us to develop a data model based on our customers' transactional and biodata information to inform the insurance underwriting process. This has significantly improved our customers' experience through their insurance purchase journey.

We are grateful for the partnerships outside OCBC Group too — some of which have truly brought a touch of magic to our customers. I am of course referring to our five-year strategic collaboration with Disney, which cuts across three of our core markets — Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. This makes us the first bank in Southeast Asia to collaborate with Disney on a comprehensive programme.

What can our customers expect? Disney themed cards, for one. This has already been rolled out for OCBC MyOwn Account debit cards and you can expect more in this space. We are also working on a rewards programme that will benefit select debit and credit cardholders, as well as OCBC 360 Account customers in Singapore and Malaysia, and Young Nyala Account customers in Indonesia. Such collaborations elevate our products and services — competing on pricing or rates alone is insufficient.

I have discussed the importance of One Group collaborations and finding strategic partners. However, we must not forget our core channels of engagement. At the heart of it, we are a banker to the community and our branch network is a big part of that. That is why we are committed to services like Sunday Banking, which is currently offered at 10 branches in Singapore. We remain the only local bank to offer this to our customers, so they can bank at convenient heartland locations even on the weekends.

We also mobilised our branches starting from 2022 for our OCBC Digital Silvers programme where we held digital banking and safety workshops for our older customers. Given the success of the programme, it has since been expanded beyond branches to community centres around Singapore. In line with the expansion of the programme, we announced last year that we would educate 10,000 seniors, and we have reached that goal.

Enhancing our services for the well-heeled

As Asia's wealth flows strengthen, we have a tremendous opportunity to grow our Premier Banking and Premier Private Client (PPC) segments. To that end, we have enhanced our offering to high-net-worth customers in the retail banking space with curated events and exclusive privileges. With the great wealth transfer taking place in Asia, we want to assist our customers – and their next generation – with their preparation. We designed the OCBC GENesis programme for this purpose. This by-invitation-only event for the children of PPC customers offers tailored financial solutions and educational resources to help young individuals navigate their financial futures.

We have also streamlined our Premier Banking onboarding processes, ensuring a seamless experience for our clients as they access our regional service model. This means applying to open multiple Premier Banking accounts simultaneously, from one location, without having to repeat the onboarding process across geographical locations or jurisdictions. We already enable this in Singapore and Hong Kong SAR, and will extend this to customers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Macau SAR in the future as well. This meets their needs; with increased globalisation, our Premier Banking customers are now more mobile, well-travelled, and transitory than ever before. We will continuously enhance our customer offerings, including exclusive rewards and privileges, cross-border remittances services, comprehensive financial needs analysis and personalised wealth advisory services.

Going forward, we will continue to leverage our twin wealth hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong SAR to expand the business. We will also expand our sales and relationship manager force to grow our Premier Banking business in the region. Already, in Hong Kong SAR, our Premier Banking customer base grew more than 35% year-on-year. In Macau SAR, that number exceeded 30%. There is potential in Indonesia too, with its huge, upwardly mobile population. Our Premier Banking customer base grew close to 20% year-on-year there. These are healthy numbers that we want to build on.

Leveraging One Group strengths for continued success

Even as we celebrate our 2024 successes, I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our customers, partners, and colleagues across OCBC Group. Close collaboration – internally and externally – has been instrumental in driving our business forward. Looking ahead, an immediate priority will be to explore even more ways to leverage OCBC's One Group capabilities to enhance our offerings and drive sustainable growth. Together, we will continue to innovate and adapt to the changing landscape, ensuring OCBC remains the top choice for our customers in the years to come.