OCBC CEO Samuel Tsien to Be Replaced by Helen Wong in April

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Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., Singapore’s second-largest bank, named Helen Wong as chief executive officer, replacing Samuel Tsien who will retire in April after running the lender since 2012.

Wong’s appointment will take effect on April 15, OCBC said in a filing to the stock exchange on Friday. Wong, 59, joined OCBC last year from HSBC Holdings Plc. where she ran the British bank’s Greater China operations.

Wong, who will become the first female CEO at a Singapore bank, has been responsible for cash management and trade under the transaction business, and investment banking.

Under Tsien’s leadership, OCBC expanded aggressively in Hong Kong while growing the bank’s wealth management business. He spent $5 billion in 2014 to take over Wing Hang Bank in Hong Kong. Two years later, he bought the Singapore and Hong Kong wealth operations of Barclays Plc, helping OCBC’s Bank of Singapore become the sixth-largest private bank by assets in Asia excluding China.

Shares of OCBC closed up almost 4% at S$10.73, slightly above the Straits Times Index’s 3% gain for the day.