OCBC mulls capital management as it closes in on three-year target for S$3 billion incremental revenue

As OCBC reaches the deadline for its three-year target to achieve S$3 billion in incremental revenue by 2025, it is setting its sights on staying resilient in an increasingly uncertain world, said group chief executive Helen Wong.

Wong said OCBC may not necessarily have a revenue target ahead, although she added that the lender will share plans and targets when available.

Instead, she noted other areas of consideration, such as the use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the changing nature of customers, as well as sustainability, on top of trade tensions.

OCBC has also shared a lot more about its capital planning initiatives recently, she said.

“It is to make sure that we are resilient enough to have a strong capital, manage our funding costs, expand our customer base, and then devote more and hopefully achieve more contribution by net interest income in the next few years,” she said at the lender’s first quarter 2025 results briefing on Friday (May 9).

In July 2023, OCBC announced plans to add S$3 billion in incremental revenue by 2025, on top of its existing growth trajectory, through its focus on the Asean-Greater China region across its business segments.

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The lender had already achieved incremental revenue of S$2 billion by the end of 2024, surpassing its milestone target of S$1.5 billion.

OCBC reported full-year revenue of S$14.47 billion in 2024, up from S$11.68 billion in FY2022.

It was “the right time” three years ago to plan initiatives that will capture incremental revenue with rising interest rates, Wong said.

“Into the future that will be a lot more uncertain, to an extent, we will have to be very vigilant about our capital,” she said.

The bank wants to “treat our shareholders correctly, like with our share buyback plan”, she added.

“And then we need to be able to have a strategy that will be able to keep us resilient, diversified, and (have) an increased customer flow.”