Singapore's Oversea Chinese Bank Corporation has marked the resurgence of its private bank with the unveiling of a new private bank centre.

The home-grown Singapore bank, which lost around a third of its staff in a poaching frenzy which gripped the industry two years ago, has doubled the number of its private banking staff and claims “double digit” growth in business over the last year. The headcount has grown to 170, including support staff, in the past 18 months and only one banker has departed so far this year.

Olivier Denis, who has headed OCBC Private Bank since September 2006, said the staff exodus saw private banking assets dip by 3 per cent, but said the bank was on track to record double-digit growth again this year.

“While no one can predict how the markets will play out, we see great opportunities in this region,” Mr Denis said.

“With the number of ultra high net worth individuals expected to increase, especially in Asia, we have developed a suite of proprietary solutions which clients can leverage to grow their wealth,” he said.

Asked if the “talent war” in the private banking industry in Singapore had abated, Mr Denis told a press conference: “Has the market slowed down in terms of active recruitments? I think it has. This business is about long-term relationships. If you jump as a relationship manager every two years, you start from scratch all over again.”

OCBC Private Bank is able to exploit the high profile of other OCBC units, such as OCBC Securities, a top-three ranked equities player in Singapore. OCBC Trustee Limited offers wealth protection, estate and generational planning solutions.

The private bank has customers in Indonesia, Malaysia and China, and has booking centres in Singapore and Hong Kong.