Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd (OCBC) plans to set up a wealth management business in China as part of a strategy to double its profit in five years in the country's Greater Bay Area, its chief executive said.

Photo: VCG

The Greater Bay Area aims to bring together Hong Kong, Macau and nine southern Chinese cities to form a business powerhouse that will seek to rival other metropolitan megacity hubs and mimic the likes of Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo.

OCBC, Singapore's second-largest listed lender, expects the launch of the wealth management business and the expansion of its banking presence in the Greater Bay Area to be a "new growth driver" for the bank, CEO Samuel Tsien said.

These plans should help OCBC double its profit before tax in the Greater Bay Area to more than S$1 billion ($743 million) by 2023, Tsien told reporters in Hong Kong.

The gradual opening-up of China's financial market worth trillions of dollars has encouraged some overseas firms to bulk up their presence in the country in sectors like insurance and asset management.

"China's [wealth management]market is developing. There will be more and more products available and you will need banks to pull that together into a structured portfolio for the private banking clients," Tsien said.

China's onshore private wealth market has grown 12 percent since 2017 and is estimated to reach 159 trillion yuan ($25 trillion) this year, according to Boston-based management consultancy BCG, making it the second-largest such market after the US.