Singapore, 23 April 2018 – OCBC Bank today announced the appointment of Mr Dennis Hong as Managing Director of OCBC Securities, its wholly-owned brokerage subsidiary, with effect from 1 May 2018. He succeeds Mr Raymond Chee, who has served in that capacity since August 2012. Mr Chee is transitioning to a new role as General Manager of the bank’s New York Agency, with the additional responsibility of overseeing the Los Angeles Agency, in the United States.

Mr Hong has served as Deputy Managing Director of OCBC Securities since 15 March 2018. He has been actively involved and engaged in business decisions since the start of the year under the guidance of Mr Chee, as part of the leadership transition.

A Public Service Commission (Local Merit) scholar, Mr Hong began his career in the Singapore Police Force and served in various capacities, including as Deputy Superintendent of Police and Operations Staff Officer at the Police Headquarters, between 2005 and 2010.

Mr Hong joined OCBC Bank in 2010 as a Post Graduate Management Associate. The programme, for talented mid-career individuals with Master’s degrees, involved him undergoing a rigorous selection process and 18 months of structured training that included customised job rotations and management coaching. Upon completion of the programme, he became a relationship manager at the bank’s Wholesale Corporate Marketing division, where he managed a portfolio of large corporates, with a focus on the aviation industry.

In 2013, Mr Hong was promoted as Head of Network Clients (Corporate Banking) at the bank’s Bangkok Branch, where he managed a team of relationship managers servicing corporate customers that had ventured into Thailand from across the bank’s wider geographical footprint.

Mr Hong was then handpicked from the bank’s pool of internal talent with leadership potential to support OCBC Bank Group CEO, Mr Samuel Tsien, as Executive Assistant in 2014. In that role, Mr Hong was instrumental in driving the development of bank-wide strategic priorities, with broad oversight across business and functional lines, as well as geographies.

In 2015, Mr Hong was selected to participate in the bank’s exclusive Executive Development Programme, which is run in collaboration with the INSEAD Business School and caters to promising individuals identified for leadership roles within the bank.

Mr Chee will stay on as Executive Director of OCBC Securities in the interim, and he will begin his appointment as General Manager of OCBC Bank’s New York Agency on 1 October 2018, after a two-month transition as Deputy General Manager.

Under Mr Chee’s leadership over the past six years, OCBC Securities has grown into one of Singapore’s leading brokerages for both retail and institutional customers.

Mr Ching Wei Hong, Chief Operating Officer of OCBC Bank and Chairman of OCBC Securities, said: "Dennis is taking over the reins at our brokerage arm at an exciting time for OCBC’s wealth management business. Our wealth management income, which includes stockbroking income, increased a robust 43 per cent to hit a new high of $3.25 billion last year. This growth momentum is expected to continue.

"For many investors, equities will remain an important asset class within their portfolios. Our customers are increasingly looking at growing their equity investments both in our home market of Singapore and in overseas stock markets such as Hong Kong and the US. We are also seeing keen interest in more sophisticated products such as equity-linked notes and FX trading. Our brokerage business is therefore a strategic component of our wealth management franchise.

"Raymond has led OCBC Securities in making big strides forward, capturing these opportunities. Our market share of SGX equity trades has increased by about 30 per cent over the past six years. Our customers’ trading volumes in overseas markets has risen at a compound annual growth rate of more than 10 per cent over the same time span. We have achieved this by strengthening our value proposition, including broadening the research and trading ideas that we offer our customers. I am confident that Dennis will be able to build on the strong foundation that Raymond has laid to grow the business further."

OCBC Securities customers have benefited from research insights provided by OCBC Investment Research, which has been recognised as Singapore’s top equities research house in industry-wide rankings. In 2016, it was named Singapore's overall top award-winning broker in the Thomson Reuters Analyst Awards, clinching a total of eight individual analyst awards – the most in the award's history in Singapore. OCBC Investment Research expanded its coverage to Hong Kong-listed stocks in 2017.