O-Bank eyes deep customer relations to set itself apart

Online bank O-Bank Co (王道商業銀行) is seeking to deepen customer relations rather than gain market share this year, in a bid to grow into a boutique lender and set itself apart from its peers, the lender said at an event in Taipei yesterday to mark its 25th anniversary.

“We are aiming to better utilize our resources by turning into a boutique bank that places more emphasis on our relationship with customers rather than wooing new ones indiscriminately,” O-Bank chairwoman Tina Lo (駱怡君) said.

To that end, the bank would work with customers in the pursuit of sustainability and fulfill its social responsibility, Lo said, adding that O-Bank is not in an advantageous position to compete with its peers with larger capitalizations in terms of expanding its assets or economic scale.

The lender would adopt a light-asset business model and adjust its portfolio dynamically to boost profits and advance digital transformation, O-Bank president Elton Lee (李芳遠) said.

RECORD EARNINGS

The lender reported that net income last year fell 41 percent year-on-year to NT$2.49 billion (US$77.8 million) as the acquisition of a capital leasing firm in 2022 steeply raised the comparison base for the year. Earnings per share were NT$0.87, it said.

Stripping out the merger, the bank achieved record-high earnings last year, thanks to higher fee income and trading gains in its corporate and retail banking businesses, Lo said.

Like its peers, O-Bank last year took advantage of the difference between Taiwan’s interest rates and those in the US by trading sizeable foreign exchange swaps, head of business strategy Joy Siew (蕭至佑) said.

Swap revenue would remain strong this year until the US Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, Siew said, adding that lower interest rates in the US would boost the value of the bank’s US dollar-denominated assets.

OVERSEAS EXPANSION

O-Bank is also on the lookout for expansion opportunities abroad, after its Hong Kong branch generated impressive profits last year and in the first two months of this year, Lee said.

The lender plans to set up a representative office in Sydney, open a venture capital unit in Singapore and create a leasing affiliate in Thailand, he said.

Overseas expansions would allow the lender to better serve its customers’ global wealth management needs, he added.