Published by Finews.asia – 24th April 2017
Private lender OCBC NISP Bank, the local Indonesian unit of Singapore’s second largest lender, plans to launch a private banking service in May.
The news comes after the bank received approval and a license to do so from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK).
The recently closed nine month long and high profile tax amnesty in the country, saw inflows to the bank, as of March, of just over $600 million in repatriated funds.
Newly Declared Funds
To date the amnesty has prompted individuals to report $338 billion in previously undeclared funds, a quarter of which was held outside the country, according to finance ministry data.
OCBC NISP is among 21 government-approved banks that are allowed to handle the newly declared funds, including moving the money back to Indonesia and investing it.
The Jakarta Post quoted OCBC NISP Bank’s individual customer solution head, Ka Jit, as saying that the new funds would be distributed to government bonds, corporate bonds and capital markets.
«The most visible distribution is to government bonds. We are also in progress of distributing them to corporate bonds,» added Ka.
He said the bank had cooperated with securities company PT OCBC Sekuritas Indonesia to distribute the funds in the capital market and were seeking cooperation with other securities companies.
Expanding Influence
Earlier this year Bank of Singapore opened in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The branch is helmed by veteran banker Kirit Chauhan and supported by a team of 75 employees.
Bank of Singapore also recently announced a strategic agreement with leading Swiss bank, Vontobel, to be the first Singapore private bank to enable its clients to book their assets in Switzerland.
As for the build out of the Jakarta wealth manager it will be supported by the central OCBC group for initiation of the private banking [service], especially in developing its human resources. So the service’s relationship managers will later be trained by OCBC/Bank of Singapore.
