Singapore-headquartered Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) names new group chief executive officer, replacing Helen Wong.

OCBC has announced that Tan Teck Long (pictured) will be appointed as its group CEO at the start of January 2026, succeeding Helen Wong who is retiring at the end of the year.

As part of a smooth transition over the next six months, Teck Long – who has been head of global wholesale banking since joining OCBC in March 2022 – will have an additional role of deputy CEO, with immediate effect. Post retirement, Wong will remain as chairman of OCBC China and a director of OCBC Hong Kong, two important banking subsidiaries, the firm said in a statement. 

Since May this year, Teck Long has been chairing the OCBC Strategic Resilience Group (SRG), whose objective is to calibrate OCBC’s position given the evolving global paradigm, strengthen the bank’s resilience, and improve the long-term sustainability of its businesses by seeking new growth opportunities. In China, he serves as a director on the boards of Bank of Ningbo and Maxwealth Fund Management Company, both affiliated with OCBC, the firm added. 

Wong – who joined OCBC in February 2020 as deputy president and head of global wholesale banking before becoming group CEO in April 2021 – had indicated last year that she wished to retire for family reasons. Since the start of 2025, she has been spending more personal time in Hong Kong, where her family is based.

“The board reluctantly accepted Helen’s request to retire to spend more time with her family. We thank her for agreeing to stay on to continue providing stewardship as chair of our China Board and a director of the Hong Kong Board, given her vast experience and deep knowledge of Greater China,” Andrew Lee, chairman of OCBC group’s board of directors, said. 

As head of global wholesale banking, Teck Long will be responsible for all banking relationships with small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and financial institutions, global transaction banking and the investment banking business.  

“With Teck Long’s appointment, there will be no disruption to OCBC’s corporate strategic direction of becoming an integrated financial services powerhouse,” Lee said.

Prior to joining OCBC, Teck Long was the group chief risk officer at another regional bank. His more than 30 years of banking experience includes senior positions leading corporate banking business and risk management function globally. 

Under Teck Long’s leadership, the global wholesale banking division achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 20 per cent in total income and 25 per cent in net profit, the firm said.  Strong revenue growth of about 35 per cent and customer growth of more than 50 per cent were recorded from capturing the Greater China-ASEAN flows. Seeing the potential in technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) companies, Teck Long built TMT industry specialist teams in China and Singapore, more than doubling the revenue in three years, the firm added.

As an advocate of sustainability, Teck Long also set out OCBC’s net zero carbon emission targets for the financed portfolio for six priority industry sectors  after assuming the role in 2022, the firm continued. He also re-engineered the credit processes and modernised the credit platform, enhancing productivity and efficiency. In addition, he accelerated regional investments across technology and data analytics. Over 90 per cent of SMEs are now onboarded digitally in Singapore and Malaysia.  

“We will now double down on pursuing strong sustainable growth, innovation and people development as we fulfil our purpose of enabling people and communities to realise their aspirations,” Teck Long said.

Since assuming the group CEO role in April 2021, Wong has achieved record profits for three consecutive years, the firm continued. Strong growth was registered across the core pillars of banking, wealth management and insurance: CAGR has been 15 per cent for banking net profit, 13 per cent for wealth management income and 34 per cent for the insurance profit contribution from Great Eastern Holdings.

Wong also successfully completed the acquisition and integration of Indonesia's Bank Commonwealth into OCBC Indonesia, and increased OCBC’s stake in Great Eastern Holdings.

OCBC is the parent of Bank of Singapore, a private bank.