By Conrad Tan

OCBC Bank's private banking subsidiary, Bank of Singapore, is hiring staff from other private banks and isn't about to lose a large number of its team, OCBC chief executive David Conner told shareholders at the bank's annual general meeting (AGM) yesterday.

BT reported last week that about 10 of OCBC's original team of 50-odd relationship managers had threatened to quit because they were unhappy about their positions within the new private bank, which was formed after OCBC bought ING Asia Private Bank (IAPB) and merged it with its own private banking business.

'It was somewhere in the region of five who actually left,' said Mr Conner, who is also chairman of Bank of Singapore. He was responding to OCBC shareholders who expressed concern over Bank of Singapore's ability to retain its private bankers and clients.

OCBC's US$1.44 billion purchase of IAPB was completed on Jan 29, adding some 150 relationship managers, more than 5,000 private-banking clients and about US$16 billion in client assets under management (AUM) to the group - raising its AUM to US$23 billion.

But competition for private bankers, especially senior ones, has increased in recent months as banks work to rebuild or beef up their wealth-management businesses in Asia.

After bonus payments were made on March 31, 'we did find some discontent' within the private banking team, Mr Conner admitted.

But 'losing a handful of relationship managers when the market is hot is not uncommon', he added. 'Frankly, it's a very good result - in particular because Bank of Singapore is recruiting from other large private banks as we speak.'

One shareholder asked why OCBC would not disclose the pay of its five most highly paid executives. OCBC chairman Cheong Choong Kong responded that it would not be in the interests of the company to do so.

'Good talent is very mobile, and good executives in banks are particularly mobile,' he said. 'So unless regulations require it, or unless our competitors also disclose the compensation of their top executives, it would be very unwise of the company, and it would be not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders' to do so, he added.

Mr Conner said that OCBC also faces competition from foreign banks operating here that are not obliged to divulge how much they pay their executives and other staff in Singapore.

'There are many competitors that we face who don't disclose anything about their business or their remuneration for their employees here in Singapore. If we disclose that kind of information, they have a very significant advantage over us in potentially attracting our employees to them.'

The two-hour meeting was punctuated by bouts of hilarity, such as when a shareholder chided the board for minor language errors in the bank's latest annual report.

'I will make sure all my fellow directors attend a course on the English language,' Mr Cheong said, drawing laughter and applause.

This article was first published in The Business Times.