OCBC launches upskilling programme for wealth advisors

OCBC yesterday launched a new upskilling programme for its wealth advisors in partnership with the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore).

According to a media release, the OCBC-WMI Wealth Advisory Programme help the bank's more than 330 wealth advisors deepen their capabilities in order to meet private banking standards.

The OCBC-WMI Wealth Advisory Programme begins a process of raising standards for the entire industry by upskilling retail banking wealth advisors with strong investment advisory principles in portfolio construction and management, asset allocation, deep relationship management, and ethics and compliance. Such competencies are a dimension beyond the more product-centric approach towards financial planning that is adopted by many retail banking wealth advisors.

The new programme consists of two certifications - the OCBC-WMI Premier Wealth Certification and OCBC-WMI Premier Private Client Wealth Certification - both aligned to the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) Standards. Senior industry practitioners from WMI will lead the training programmes.

All OCBC Premier Banking relationship managers will attend the OCBC-WMI Premier Wealth Certification course which focuses on developing skills in providing investment advisory and excellent client management.

While the higher-level OCBC-WMI Premier Private Client Certification course is targeted at client advisors who serve OCBC Premier Private Client customers with assets under management (AUM) of S$1 million or more.

This initiative fits into the industry transformation map for the financial services industry, which envisions Singapore becoming a leading international wealth management hub. It was launched at the OCBC Campus by Ching Wei Hong, OCBC Bank’s chief operating officer; Dennis Tan, OCBC Bank’s head of consumer financial services Singapore; and Foo Mee Har, chief executive officer of WMI.

Dennis Tan, head of consumer financial services Singapore, said: “We want to nurture our wealth advisors into world-class wealth management professionals, providing them with diverse learning opportunities to develop their careers with us. Our partnership with NTU’s Wealth Management Institute to create a specialised certification programme for our wealth advisors will enable them to provide our clients with unparalleled service and advisory.”

Photo / provided