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Enoch Yiu

Singaporean banking giant OCBC Group is expanding its wealth management and corporate banking business in Macau to tap opportunities in the Greater Bay Area and offset falling demand for mortgages.
“Wealth management will be our future growth engine,” Kelvin Lou Po-hong, the CEO of OCBC Macau, said in an interview in the gaming hub. “We would also like to serve more corporate clients who are expanding in Macau, riding on the government’s policies to diversify the economy.”
OCBC is diversifying into these new areas because mortgage lending, the bank’s core business in Macau, has declined in recent years due to falling property transactions, he added.
OCBC, the second largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, joins a slew of financial firms such as Manulife, Prudential and HSBC Life that have expanded in the gaming hub.

Group CEO Helen Wong said in May that the lender will spend HK$1.5 billion (US$192 million) over the next three years to upgrade its Hong Kong and Macau digital platforms, offices and branches.
The plan does not entail increasing the number of branches in Macau, but the branches will be upgraded to cater to more wealth management customers, Lou said.
While Macau’s population of 680,000 is smaller than the population of Sha Tin district in Hong Kong, the city has a strong tourism industry.
“Macau attracts about 30 million tourists every year, or on average about 100,000 a day,” he said. “Many of these visitors are from Greater Bay Area cities, who need about 15 minutes by car to cross the border to buy insurance and fund products in Macau.”
Beijing rolled out the Greater Bay Area blueprint in February 2019 to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland cities into an economic powerhouse.
OCBC entered Macau via its acquisition of Wing Hang Bank in 2014. By taking over Wing Hang Bank’s 11 branches and 450 employees in Macau, the lender is now the second-largest foreign bank in the former Portuguese colony, with total assets of HK$32 billion at the end of 2023.
Lou, 52, was born and brought up in Macau. After getting a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Alberta, Canada, he returned to Macau and joined KPMG, where he worked for 11 years before switching to Wing Hang Bank in 2007. He has held many positions in the finance sector before taking the current role.
An increasing number of financial firms and companies from other sectors from Hong Kong and Asia are expanding their footprint in Macau following the government’s launch of the “1+4” development strategy last year. The strategy calls for the diversification of the casino-dependent economy to four other sectors, namely healthcare, financial services, technology, and conventions and exhibitions.
“Previously, our corporate clients were mainly domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, but the ‘1+4’ policies have attracted more large companies to Macau,” Lou said.
These newcomers, ranging from luxury brands, jewellers and supermarket chains, have boosted OCBC Macau’s corporate banking business. This segment represented 45 per cent of its business last year, up from about 30 per cent in 2019. Revenues meanwhile grew 20 per cent last year.
OCBC Macau, which previously focused on mortgage loans, is leaning more on wealth management, selling policies for AIA and China Life, while also offering hundreds of fund products to its clients.
“Many Macau investors previously invested only in property or stocks in Hong Kong,” Lou said. “Now we see more wealthy customers both from Macau and the Greater Bay Area buying insurance and fund products.”
Macau’s gaming-reliant economy has a modest financial sector. There are only three securities intermediaries, 27 insurers and 33 lenders, compared with 600 stockbrokers, 160 insurance companies and 164 banks in Hong Kong.
Lou said Macau lenders can still compete for wealthy customers from cities like Zhuhai and Zhongshan, which are closer to Macau than Hong Kong.
“Some investors prefer to work with Macau bankers for more personal services,” he said.


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Banking & finance

OCBC expands wealth management, corporate banking in Macau to tap Greater Bay Area clients

Tourists visit the Ruins of St Paul, one of the most iconic tourist attractions in Macau. Photo: Elson Li

Kelvin Lou Po-hong, the CEO of OCBC Macau. Photo: Enoch Yiu

Singapore’s OCBC mulling refurbishment options for iconic headquarters, CEO Helen Wong says

OCBE Centre, the headquarters of OCBC Group, was designed by architect I. M. Pei. Photo: Handout

Helen Wong, group CEO of OCBC, says the bank has to think carefully about the planned refurbishment of its headquarters. Photo: Sun Yeung

Singapore’s OCBC investing US$192 million in Hong Kong, Macau to support business growth, CEO Helen Wong says

Helen Wong, group CEO of OCBC, says the bank is investing in technology to support its growth plans in Hong Kong and Macau. Photo: Sun Yeung

OCBC acquired Hong Kong’s Wing Hang Bank in 2014. Photo: SCMP

Manulife’s new Macau office will help insurer tap Greater Bay Area opportunities, CEO says

Patrick Graham, the CEO for Hong Kong and Macau at Manulife, says the demand for life insurance is attractive in Macau. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Manulife will move to its new office in the Yoho Treasure Island complex in Macau in October. Photo: Handout

HSBC Life’s new Macau outlet taps under served Greater Bay Area market as the gaming hub diversifies its economy

HSBC Life executives at the lion dance ceremony for its Macau centre opening on August 3, 2023. Photo: Enoch Yiu

HSBC Life CEO Edward Moncreiffe, photographed at his office in HSBC Tower in Tai Kok Tsui. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Greater Bay Area: Prudential opens first branch in Macau, joining HSBC Life, Manulife in battle for mainland customers

Tourists outside Macau’s famed Ruínas de São Paulo. Photo: Edmond So

Lawrence Lam (left), CEO of Prudential Hong Kong, Lillian Ng, (centre) managing director of strategic business group at Prudential, and Chris Ma, general manager of Prudential Hong Kong (Macau) branch, hosted the opening ceremony of the insurer’s Macau branch on Monday. Photo: Enoch Yiu

A banner featuring the Prudential logo atop a building in Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg

Macau hopes to diversify into a financial services centre. Photo: Xinhua

Business

Banking & Finance

Companies

OCBC sees wealth management as it key growth engine in Macau and would like to serve corporate clients expanding in the gaming hub, bank’s local head says


OCBC sees wealth management as it key growth engine in Macau and would like to serve corporate clients expanding in the gaming hub, Kelvin Lou, the bank’s local head says.


Greater Bay Area

Macau

Wealth management