Bank Of Singapore's Rides Alongside Rise Of Asia's EAMs

Editorial Staff

11 April 2025

In our series of interviews with banks and other players working in Singapore’s external asset managers (EAM) sector, we talk to Annabelle Chow, head of financial intermediaries, . We have already published several articles, such as here, here, here, here and here. We continue to explore different aspects of the EAM industry, not just in Singapore, but also in Hong Kong and other financial hubs in Asia.

Nominations are open for the Fourth WealthBriefingAsia EAM Awards, 2025, with the public announcement in Singapore, on 16 October.

When dealing with EAMs, what are the main tasks and forms of support they ask for the most and why, in your experience?
We see EAMs or financial intermediaries (FIMs) as our strategic partners, a core pillar of our growth strategy. We adopt an institutionalised servicing approach to FIMs and are focused on developing unique and wider offerings for them. We have built a centralised team of experts in all three hubs who will deal only with FIMs and are specialised in their needs and challenges.

We have a dedicated team of institutional specialists who support our FIMs globally with macroeconomic updates, investment insights and ideas which are long term or topical that may be interesting for our FIM clients. We also hold monthly investment webinars where we share market updates and interesting ideas. With this support, they can keep a smaller investment team and leverage Bank of Singapore’s resources.

We offer our FIM clients custody and execution services, including secure safekeeping of securities and cash, and access to global markets in various asset classes to provide trade execution. Our FIM partners have full access to our research, publications as well as the full suite of products – not just within Bank of Singapore but also within the OCBC group. We also avail services – like family office and wealth advisory within Bank of Singapore – to support our FIM partners. We operate on an open architecture basis.

We also expanded our alternatives offering for FIMs through the FIM Alternative Select, an alternative investment digital platform which we launched last year, the first of such scale by a private bank in Asia. Through the platform, we make it easier for our FIM partners to augment the strength of their client portfolios with alternative investment opportunities, without incurring extra time to source for such investment opportunities.

On the regulatory front, we set up the FIM academy a few years back to update and share with our FIM partners globally any updates and changes in the industry which may affect their clients. Our in-house specialists will share latest updates or educate our FIMs on regulatory issues, from clients’ due diligence to looking out for potentially suspicious transactions. We would also share any upcoming technology enhancements which can better support their business. We provide trading tools and portfolio management systems as a core offering to our partners.

In approximate terms, how important is the EAM business line to the bank in general, for example, for revenue growth, etc?
In our view, there is vast potential in the financial intermediary segment. Across the industry, we have seen a significant growth in the number of FIMs being set up to serve high net worth individuals over the last six to seven years. Against this backdrop, we embrace FIMs as a core component of the ecosystem. At Bank of Singapore, we see them as strategic partners and a key pillar of our strategy. In fact, the financial intermediary segment has been one of our fastest growing areas in the last three years, with double-digit growth.

How important has the rise of VCCs (Variable Capital Companies) been in driving EAMs' business and the services they need?
VCCs allow FIMs more flexibility to create diverse fund structures to offer tailored investment strategies to a wider +range of clients more easily and at lower set up costs. Typically, there is a more streamlined regulatory and legal framework, which eases the compliance cost and administrative load on the FIMs. The ability to tailor investment strategies within a VCC framework allows FIMs to customise their advice to the specific goals and risk profiles of their clients, supporting a more advisory-based model. This can help create a competitive edge for FIMs against the more common discretionary approach in the industry.

Regulatory issues remain important, and Singapore is, of course, no exception, along with Southeast Asia more generally. Are there topics that are particularly front of mind?
Given the significant growth in wealth in this region, regulations around private wealth are much needed in order to maintain the integrity and strength of a robust financial system. We take all regulatory issues very seriously.

How is digital technology shaping the sort of custody services you provide, for example affecting its cost, range of services, etc?
Digital technology is transforming how FIMs and private banks can work together. It is pushing both parties to be more efficient, transparent and, more importantly, allowing us to scale. We look at providing technology tools for our FIM clients to self-serve more efficiently, driving down costs on both sides.

Technology also allows us to create more interactive dashboards which are customisable to each FIM (for example our platform for FIMs has this capability) or potentially widen the scope of offering to include AI-enabled insights or access to investment ideas and more. Using data analytics and AI, EAMs and private banks can work together to devise highly personalised and bespoke investment strategies that cater to individual client needs and preferences.