The bank opened its Dubai branch in February this year, and is already looking to expand to cater to the overflowing pool of wealthy clients in the region.

The private banking unit of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) is hiring more staff in Dubai, as the Singapore-based lender seeks to tap the growing riches of the Middle East’s wealthy. 

Bank of Singapore is planning to hire around 20 relationship managers next year to cater to the burgeoning pool of rich people and non-resident Indians living in the Gulf, according to Vikram Malhotra, the firm’s global market head for South Asia and the Middle East. 

Most additions will be based in Dubai, while some others will be placed in Singapore and Hong Kong to boost the bank’s non-resident Indian teams in those cities, Malhotra said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. 

Bank of Singapore opened its Dubai branch in February this year, and has some 45 wealth managers there. The city serves as a regional financial hub for the oil-rich Persian Gulf region. 

Last year, total wealth in the Middle East swelled 5 per cent to reach $2.4 trillion, according to figures from Capgemini, the consultancy. 

Bank of Singapore has seen a “phenomenal growth in the assets under management” in the Middle East and from wealthy overseas Indians this year, Malhotra said. He joined the private bank from Barclays, following the sale of its wealth units in Hong Kong and Singapore to OCBC last year for $227.5 million.

In November, as reported here, OCBC completed the acquisition of National Australia Bank’s private wealth business in Hong Kong, coming about two weeks after finishing the purchase of NAB’s business in Singapore. The deal was originally agreed in May.