OCBC Scores First For Singapore Bank With Securities Financing Arm

Editorial Staff

22 January 2026

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) said it has become the first Singaporean bank to create a dedicated securities financing unit for institutional clients.

The unit sits in OCBC’s global markets division, which the lender said has almost doubled its share of group operating profit, year-on-year, as of 30 September last year. (It is scheduled to issue full-year 2025 results on 25 February.)

As part of the move, clients, and others, can earn a fee because the new unit can lend out their idle securities.

OCBC said securities financing demand has seen a “structural rise globally,” as a result of banks wanting to run their balance sheets more efficiently. Buy-side firms increasingly look for partners and support to optimise liquidity, meet collateral obligations, and implement hedging strategies in volatile markets, the bank said. (The term “buy-side” covers a wide field such as pension funds, insurers and asset managers.)