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OCBC Bank sets up ethics and conduct board committee, and culture committee

OCBC Bank has established an Ethics and Conduct Board Committee, as of 27 March, to ensure that trust and integrity are maintained strongly in the way business is conducted.

It is chaired by OCBC Bank Chairman, Ooi Sang Kuang (pictured below), and includes two other directors – Dr Lee Tih Shih and Christina Ong. They are tasked with providing oversight of policies, guidelines and programmes that support a strong and responsible organisation culture.

The first meeting was held on 27 March, which laid out its expectations and standards for all 29,000 employees of the OCBC Group to sustain and grow a culture of responsible banking and fair dealing.

 

In parallel, the Bank has also rolled out a new Culture and Conduct Management Committee chaired by its Group Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Tsien. This will be tasked to implement initiatives to enhance existing policies and programmes on ethics and conduct, as well as roll out new ones to ensure these core values are always embedded in the DNA of each employee.

Ooi explained the new initiatives: "In the last decade, there have been several high-profile examples of questionable conduct by financial institutions. These examples span the globe and the misconduct ranges from extreme over-leveraging to violating international sanctions, tax fraud and money-laundering. The misconduct stems mostly from an imbalance between the pursuit of financial goals and responsible banking."

ALSO READ: Q&A: Jason Ho, executive VP and head of group HR, OCBC Bank

Ooi, who has been OCBC Bank’s Chairman since 2014, was previously Deputy Governor and a Board Director of Bank Negara Malaysia.

Dr Lee, an Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School, has previously held senior positions at both OCBC Bank and Monetary Authority of Singapore. Ong is the Co-Chairman and Senior Partner of law firm Allen & Gledhill LLP and has extensive experience in corporate regulatory and compliance matters.

Group HR will be involved in these initiatives, with more plans being rolled out in the future.

Lead image / StockUnlimited Photo / OCBC Bank

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