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“30% increase in new accounts”: BoS global COO speeds up client onboarding

Jacky Ang, Bank of Singapore
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One year into his tenure as global COO at the Bank of Singapore, Jacky Ang, who brings 26 years of experience from Credit Suisse, is already making waves by streamlining processes and enhancing client onboarding at the bank which manages over US$100 billion in client assets.

The results speak for themselves. Client onboarding turnaround time has been cut by more than half, with some rare cases seeing accounts opened within two weeks. The new process has also contributed to a “30% year-on-year increase in new accounts opened from January to July 2024,” according to Ang.

When he joined the Singaporean private bank, client onboarding was the biggest challenge, due to a rigid framework, a lack of understanding between business and approval teams, and multiple iterations of back-and-forth with clients, which dragged out the whole process.

“That was the worry for RMs and now that’s no longer a topic. We are possibly the most successful hirer of RMs this year.”

Reflecting on his early days in the role, Ang recalled: “I joined in September 2023, and that was the first challenge thrown at me,” he said in the first of a two-part interview series. “We all go through patches where things just aren’t running smoothly. And this was definitely a problem, but it’s not one I haven’t seen before.”

With a wealth of experience behind him, the veteran banker was quick to take charge: “It was something I was able to jump into and work on, to see what we could do to really improve the process.” Though the changes are yielding positive results, there was more happening behind the scenes.

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Behind the scenes 

Towards the end of last year, Ang decided to bring in external consultants to double-check their practices against the market. He wanted to ensure they were not only compliant with regulations but also aligned with industry standards. That benchmarking was crucial for him as it was the missing link.

Previously, everyone was operating under what they believed to be a conservative and safe approach, which resulted in multiple repetitive steps throughout the onboarding process. Before implementing the new systems, there was scepticism in the industry, with relationship managers (RMs) expressing concerns about the Bank of Singapore’s ability to onboard clients efficiently.

“That was the worry for RMs and now that’s no longer a topic,” Ang pointed out. “We are possibly the most successful hirer of RMs this year, so we are definitely on our way to hitting our targets in terms of the number of RMs we want […] because the word of mouth from all the RMs who have joined us this year has been very positive.

“They are able to onboard their clients very quickly. And so this negative perception has sort of dissipated. That, to me, is the best thing that we could have done within this short period of time,” he explained.

Change in mindset 

One challenge Ang faced was the staff’s mindset as they were reluctant to change the status quo, and over time added controls to prevent problems, which led to inefficiencies from duplicated efforts.

Recognising this, the COO felt the need for a fresh perspective, which is why he brought in external consultants. Their role was to highlight areas where the bank was redundantly addressing the same risks.

“It also took a bit of time for the people on the ground to feel sure about it. It took a bit of training and coaxing, but over time, that has now been widely accepted.”

“We wanted an external view to validate what we know: ‘Hey, you’re repeating all these things trying to address the same risk. It’s time to get rid of some of these things,” he shared. “Sometimes people are very scared of removing things for fear of regulatory or audit consequences.

“However, once we implemented those policy changes, it also took a bit of time for the people on the ground to feel sure about it. It took a bit of training and coaxing, but over time, that has now been widely accepted.”

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Three-year programme

The veteran banker has set his sights on a three-year client lifecycle management programme aimed at assessing the entire client experience. This initiative focuses on creating a clear roadmap for managing the client journey, from prospecting and onboarding to ongoing investment advisory services.

“The overall three-year plan is to basically upgrade everything so that we are then poised to grow without having any worries about scalability,” he said.

Bank of Singapore recently made a senior hire to further this initiative, appointing Karthik Shenoy as head of platforms and transformation, chief operating office, in September 2024, reporting to Ang. Shenoy joined from Credit Suisse where he was global head of financing technology and head of APAC wealth technology.

“Karthik will be instrumental in driving the implementation of the bank’s three-year strategic plan to enhance its internal infrastructure and platforms,” Bank of Singapore said in a recent note.

Ang also aims to create an internal dashboard workbench for staff, allowing them to log in with a single sign-on. Given the nature of their work, all necessary applications will be integrated into this screen, enabling them to work efficiently from one screen.

“I want to open this up to every employee in the bank and leverage technology.”

“That is my hope – that we’re able to achieve that. It is something we don’t commonly see in other private banks. They do it, but usually for the client-facing staff, not for the rest of the bank,” he continued.

“We have it for the RMs too, so we’re taking that same approach and saying, ‘Why limit it to this group of people?’ I want to open this up to every employee in the bank and leverage technology to really streamline processes and re-imagine how we work.

“We also just rolled out a new Gen AI tool that basically canvases all the CIO ideas and then pushes them out to the RMs based on the profile of the client. “It helps the RM be more precise in delivering investments,” he concluded.

In the second instalment, Ang reflects on his 26-year career at Credit Suisse and the decision to join Bank of Singapore, as well as how his first 100 days focused on understanding the organisation and implementing changes based on past experiences.

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