Private Banking

In 2025, Bank of Singapore recorded strong business momentum. We surpassed our target of US$145 billion in assets under management (AUM) set in 2023, growing our AUM by over 20% in 2025. Revenue also grew by over 20%, driven by robust transactional activity.

Our hubs – Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai – performed well. Notably, our Hong Kong branch led growth, exceeding its target of growing AUM by 50% from 2024 to 2026, more than a year ahead of time.

Driving Growth Through Key Segments

Our sharpened focus on two key segments – ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) and financial intermediaries (FIMs), also known as independent asset managers – was instrumental in driving this growth. AUM from UHNW clients grew by 25% while AUM from FIM clients increased by more than 30%.

To better serve our UHNW clients, we established our Vice Chair Office, a dedicated unit focused on building our lending, alternatives, and investment analytics capabilities for this segment.

We also launched a new solution, the Bank of Singapore Family Office Catalyst, tailored for UHNW individuals seeking professional wealth management in Singapore. Through this solution, the funds in an investment vehicle are professionally managed by the Bank either through discretionary portfolio management (DPM) or advisory portfolio management (APM). The Family Office Catalyst provides principal advantages traditionally associated with a single-family office (SFO) – access to specialised investment expertise and eligibility for tax exemptions – for families who are not ready or may not have the need to establish and manage a dedicated SFO.

Beyond solutions, engagement remained a priority, with exclusive networking platforms for UHNW clients to learn more about global investment opportunities, such as private luncheons at our flagship CIO Summit and curated trips to renowned, dynamic start-up hubs like Berlin.

We have similarly placed strong focus on supporting FIMs, a strategic, fast-growing segment for us in recent years. Understanding that technology is crucial to our FIMs proposition, we partnered with an artificial intelligence (AI) wealth platform to assist in personalised portfolio management, automating deep investment research, and delivering proposals and market intelligence efficiently. This in turn enables our FIM clients to focus on the bespoke, human-centric advice that their clients value.

The trust and confidence our FIM clients place in us were affirmed by strong industry recognition: we were named Best Private Bank for Intermediaries by both Asian Private Banker and Citywire in 2025. As a key pillar of our strategy, we will continue to deliver value to them by developing unique and wider offerings, supported by our institutional servicing approach.

Strengthening Intellectual Capital

Building intellectual capital remains central to our commitment to being a trusted advisor to clients. This is especially so in today's uncertain environment.

With that in mind, we introduced a new systematic, robust and risk-based Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) framework in 2025, which was developed by our Chief Investment Office after a year-long study and stress testing of 120,000 portfolios.

The framework adopts a robust optimisation technique, creating investment portfolios adapted to withstand uncertainties in market conditions and key inputs, such as expected returns and risks, thereby delivering more stable returns.

Typically the domain of quantitative hedge funds and institutional investors, we are the first Asian private bank to use the robust optimisation technique to build a SAA framework.

Leveraging Technology to Empower Relationship Managers

We continue to innovate and leverage AI to transform the way we work. While doing so, we are mindful that relationships lie at the heart of private banking. Our commitment, therefore, is to harness technology to complement the human touch – not to replace it.

This balance can be seen in how we empower our relationship managers (RMs). Technology is a critical enabler that enables them to serve clients with greater efficiency and impact.

In June 2025 for example, we launched an agentic AI-powered source of wealth (SOW) tool in collaboration with OCBC's group data office. This helped RMs to reduce preparation time for SOW reports – from 10 days to just one hour – accelerating client onboarding and periodic reviews. With this uplift in productivity, RMs can focus on deepening client relationships and delivering superior experiences.

This use of agentic AI builds on earlier generative AI and traditional AI initiatives, including a tool that assists our RMs in their engagement with clients, curating talking points, personalised investment insights and multi-asset strategies.

Looking Ahead

We remain focused on our ambition to be the top Asian private bank, and among the top five private banks in Asia, in the next three to five years.

Achieving this means being our clients' main bank, going beyond product execution. We want to support them holistically across succession planning, investment advisory, and providing access to global products and solutions.

To support this ambition, we will leverage our parent company OCBC's extensive regional presence to build an integrated onshore-offshore private banking network across the region, while doubling down on growing our talent pool and strengthening our digital capabilities.