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Singapore-based lender OCBC has appointed Tan Teck Long as its next group chief executive officer, effective January 1 2026, succeeding Helen Wong, who is retiring on December 31 2025 after leading the group for over four years, the bank says in a statement.
Tan, who has been head of global wholesale banking since joining OCBC in March 2022, will assume the additional role of deputy CEO, effective immediately. After her retirement, Wong will remain the chairman of OCBC China and a director of OCBC Hong Kong, two strategically important banking subsidiaries.
Since May this year, Tan has been chairing the OCBC strategic resilience group ( SRG ), whose objective is to calibrate OCBC’s position, “given the continually evolving global paradigm, strengthen the bank’s resilience, and improve the long-term sustainability of our businesses by seeking new growth engines”. In China, he serves as a director on the boards of Bank of Ningbo and Maxwealth Fund Management Company, both affiliated with OCBC.
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.
Andrew Lee, chairman of OCBC Group’s board of directors, says: “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.”
Smooth transition
According to OCBC, Tan’s appointment is a testament to the bank's rigourous succession planning and talent management. As head of global wholesale banking, he has global responsibility for all banking relationships with small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and financial institutions, global transaction banking and the investment banking business.
“After a rigorous global search, the board unanimously agreed that Teck Long was the best candidate to take the helm," says Lee. "With Teck Long’s appointment, there will be no disruption to OCBC’s corporate strategic direction of becoming an integrated financial services powerhouse."
Prior to joining OCBC, Tan was the group chief risk officer at another regional bank. He has more than 30 years of banking experience, including senior roles in corporate banking and brisk management.
Under Tan’s leadership in the three years, the global wholesale banking division achieved a compound annual growth rate of about 20% in total income and 25% in net profit. It also recorded revenue growth of about 35% and customer growth of more than 50%.
Record profits
Thanking Wong for her contributions, Lee says: “Helen sharpened OCBC’s competitive edge as an integrated financial services group by ushering in a well-defined corporate strategy. Together with the team, Helen has executed the strategy in a clear and disciplined manner. She is handing over to Teck Long a very steady ship. The board and I offer her our unreserved thanks and wish her a very happy retirement.”
Since assuming the group CEO role in April 2021, Wong has achieved record profits for three consecutive years, OCBC says, with strong growth registered across all core pillars of banking, wealth management and insurance: The bank's CAGR has been 15% for banking net profit, 13% for wealth management income and 34% for the insurance profit contribution from Great Eastern Holdings.
The bank also says it is on track to surpassing its target of S$3 billion ( US$2.34 billion ) in incremental revenue before the end of 2025. Wong successfully completed the acquisition and integration of Indonesia's Bank Commonwealth into OCBC Indonesia, and increased OCBC’s stake in Great Eastern Holdings from 88.44% to 93.72% via a voluntary general offer made in July 2024. In February 2025, she unveiled the largest capital return plan in OCBC’s history amounting to S$2.5 billion, comprising special dividends and share buybacks over two years, the bank adds.
