OCBC announced the appointment of Tan Teck Long as group CEO, effective 1 January 2026, succeeding Helen Wong, who will retire on 31 December 2025.
As part of a smooth transition over the next six months, Tan – who has been head of global wholesale banking since joining OCBC in March 2022 – will with immediate effect assume the additional role of deputy CEO. Wong will remain, post retirement, thechairman of OCBC China and a director of OCBC Hong Kong, two strategicallyimportant banking subsidiaries.
Since May this year, Tan has been chairing the OCBC strategic resilience group (SRG), whose objective is to calibrate OCBC’s position given the continually evolving global paradigm, strengthen the bank’s resilience and improve the long-term sustainability of our businesses by seeking new growthengines. In China, he serves as a director on the boards of Bank of Ningbo andMaxwealth Fund Management Company, both affiliated with OCBC.
Wong, who joined OCBC in February 2020 as deputy president and head of global wholesale banking before becoming group CEO in April 2021, had indicated last year that she wished to retire for family reasons. Since the start of 2025, she has been spending more personal time in Hong Kong, where her family is based. Andrew Lee, chairman of OCBC Group’s board of directors, said, “The board reluctantly accepted Helen’s request to retire to spend more time with her family. We thank her for agreeing to stay on to continue providing stewardship as chair of our China board and a director of the Hong Kong board,given her vast experience and deep knowledge of Greater China.”
Smooth transition
Tan’s appointment is a testament to OCBC’s rigour in succession planning and talent management. As head of global wholesale banking, he has global responsibility for all banking relationships with small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and financial institutions, global transaction banking and the investment banking business.
Lee said, “After a rigorous global search, the board unanimously agreed that Teck Long was the best candidate to take the helm. He has demonstrated sterlingleadership that goes beyond growing the wholesale banking business; as chairof the OCBC SRG, he has shown the ability to zero in on the critical issues, be forward-thinking and act decisively. With Teck Long’s appointment, there will be no disruption to OCBC’s corporate strategic direction of becoming an integrated financial services powerhouse. As it is, few financial institutions in Asia can rival the group’s diversity and synergistic power. Teck Long will refine and enhance our corporate strategy, leveraging OCBC’s comprehensive franchise and anchored on the One Group approach, so that OCBC’s growth and reach will break new ground. The board and I are delighted to congratulate him on his new role as group CEO.”
Tan’s strong track record
Prior to joining OCBC, Tan was the group chief risk officer at another regional bank. His more than 30 years of banking experience include senior positions leading corporate banking business and risk management function globally.
Under Tan’s leadership in the three years, the global wholesale banking division achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 20% in total income and 25% in net profit. Strong revenue growth of about 35% and customer growth of more than 50% were recorded from capturing the surging Greater China-ASEAN flows. Seeing the potential in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies, Tan built TMT industry specialist teams in China and Singapore, more than doubling the revenue in three years. He substantially grew the syndicated loans in Hong Kong, propelling OCBC Hong Kong to third on the Hong Kong Loan Syndication League Table position from 11th, and grew the debt capital markets business to top the Singapore Dollar Bond League Table in 2024.
A strong advocate of sustainability, Tan immediately set out OCBC’s net zerocarbon emission targets for the financed portfolio for six priority industry sectorsafter assuming the role in 2022.
Pioneering the concept of horizontal organisation framework in OCBC, Tanre-engineered the credit processes and modernised the credit platform, significantly enhancing productivity and efficiency. He played a pivotal role in the revamp of the bank’s global asset-liability and funds transfer pricing framework to sharpen product pricing for more robust balance sheet management.
Tan has also accelerated regional investments across technology and dataanalytics. Today, over 90% of SMEs are onboarded digitally in Singapore andMalaysia.
On his new role, Tan said, “I thank the board for granting me the honour of leading OCBC. Over the past three years, I have greatly enjoyed working hand-in-hand with so many talented individuals in OCBC to repeatedly achieve record business results, and launch several first-in-market initiatives. Helen has laid down a firm foundation and I will be privileged to build on that. In many respects,a new season has begun for the world economy but the One OCBC Group approach Helen has led us in championing will remain strategically critical to capturing opportunities amid expanding ASEAN-Greater China connectivity. We are already differentiated from our peers in Asia as a diversified financial services group. We will now double down on pursuing strong sustainable growth, innovation and people development as we fulfil our purpose of enabling people and communities to realise their aspirations.”
Wong’s legacy
Since assuming the group CEO role in April 2021, Wong has achieved record profits for three consecutive years. Strong growth was registered across all core pillars of banking, wealth management and insurance: CAGR has been 15% for banking net profit, 13% for wealth management income and 34% for the insurance profit contribution from Great Eastern Holdings. Through relentlessadoption of the One Group strategic approach, OCBC is on track to surpassingthe incremental revenue target – of SGD 3 billion ($2.3 billion) incremental revenue before the end of 2025 – that was publicly declared in 2023. Wong also successfully completed the acquisition and integration of Indonesia’s Bank Commonwealth into OCBC Indonesia, and increased OCBC’s stake in Great Eastern Holdings from 88.44% to 93.72% via a Voluntary General Offer made in July 2024. In February 2025, she unveiled the largest capital return plan in OCBC’s history amounting to SGD 2.5 billion ($1.9 billion), comprising special dividends and share buybacks over two years.
Thanking Wong for her outstanding contributions, Lee said: “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. The board and I offer her our unreserved thanks and wish her a very happy retirement.”
Wong said, “It has been a rewarding journey to lead OCBC, with its rich history and heritage. Playing a part in its transformation towards ever greater strength and resilience has been especially fulfilling. I am deeply grateful to the board for their wise counsel, my management team for being such a great team, and all my colleagues for their commitment and dedication in making OCBC the Bank of the Year in Asia Pacific and Best Managed Bank in Singapore – awardedby leading financial publications – this year. I am very pleased to hand the baton over to Teck Long. His bold leadership style, immense sense of responsibility andvision coupled with grit will steer OCBC confidently into the future. The synergiesof our unique banking, wealth management, insurance and asset management franchise will be further maximised under Teck Long’s leadership.”
Source: OCBC
