By CONRAD TAN

THE head of Bank of Singapore, the newly renamed private banking unit of OCBC Bank, yesterday set out ambitious goals for the business that would expand its reach to Europe and the Middle East.

Renato 'Bing' de Guzman, who now heads the renamed ING Asia Private Bank (IAPB) after it was acquired by OCBC in October last year, told a media conference that he wanted Bank of Singapore to be the No 1 private bank in South-east Asia - 'our home market' - and among the top three wealth managers in Greater China, both of which it considers key markets.

He said the bank would also pursue new business in Europe and the Middle East 'where there is demand for a local Singapore private banking service that is different from branches of European banks', and strengthen its existing business serving non-resident Indians.

'There's quite a lot instability in the European market when it comes to private banking and people are looking for an alternative, and a very viable alternative is Singapore,' he said.

Over the past year, several boutique private banks from overseas have set up operations for the first time in Singapore, looking to attract clients from Europe worried about the fallout from the recent spat between Switzerland and the United States over Swiss banking secrecy laws.

But for now, Bank of Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC, is the only dedicated private bank that is incorporated here - which Mr de Guzman believes gives it an advantage in seeking to attract clients.

It has 600 staff, including 200 relationship managers (RMs), and client assets under management of US$23 billion. The bank is looking to hire another 30 RMs, Mr de Guzman said.

While only a small fraction of Bank of Singapore's current assets under management are from Europe and the Middle East, the sale of IAPB to OCBC paves the way for it to pursue clients in those regions, said OCBC chief executive David Conner.

Previously, as part of Dutch financial services group ING, IAPB's business was focused on wealthy clients in Asia, while private banking clients in the Middle East and Europe were served by other parts of ING, Mr Conner said.

'What's attractive to us is that now that's open territory for Bank of Singapore, and we're going to build the marketing teams for those markets. The opportunities are quite significant.'

Yesterday was the official closing of the all-cash sale of IAPB to OCBC. After minor adjustments, the final price of US$1.446 billion was slightly below the US$1.463 billion price mentioned when the deal was first announced on Oct 15.

'From here, our priority is to invest in the Bank of Singapore to rapidly grow the business and to capture market share,' Mr Conner said.

With the completion of the deal, Mr de Guzman is now the head of Bank of Singapore and a member of OCBC's management committee.

Olivier Denis, who led OCBC's private banking business for the past three years, is now a senior managing director in Mr de Guzman's management team.

Mr Denis will be in charge of integrating OCBC's private banking business into the Bank of Singapore, Mr Conner said.

This article was first published in The Business Times.