Independent wealth managers are becoming more sophisticated, their clients more international and the demands placed on their businesses considerably broader. What once centred predominantly on investment management and custody is expanding into alternatives, family governance, financing, philanthropy, sustainability and increasingly complex cross-border needs. At the same time, firms are under pressure to improve the client experience while containing the cost and complexity of technology, compliance and specialist talent.

For Annabelle Chow, Managing Director, Head of Financial Intermediaries at Bank of Singapore, this evolution is changing what an effective banking partnership should provide. Bank of Singapore’s proposition combines dedicated Financial Intermediaries teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai with institutional investment capabilities, digital infrastructure, access to the wider OCBC Group and an expanding range of services that intermediaries can bring into their own client relationships.

Key Takeaways

  • Bank of Singapore is widening the traditional custodian relationship: Its Financial Intermediaries business is designed to support independent wealth firms at both an operating and strategic level.

  • Dedicated coverage reflects the business-to-business model: Relationship managers need to understand the intermediary as a firm, rather than approach the relationship in the same way as an individual private banking client.

  • Technology development is increasingly collaborative: Enhancements to BOS IX are shaped with input from financial intermediary partners to improve self-service, reporting and workflow efficiency.

  • Alternative investments are an important point of differentiation: Bank of Singapore’s FIM Alternatives Select proposition provides intermediary partners with broader access to private market and alternative investment opportunities.

  • Artificial intelligence is being applied to onboarding: HELIOS builds on the bank’s earlier Source of Wealth Assistant and is intended to shorten due diligence and account-opening processes while maintaining appropriate review and controls.

  • The wider OCBC Group adds capabilities beyond private banking: Financing, markets, corporate and commercial banking and other services can be brought into relationships where end-client needs extend beyond portfolio management.

  • Chow expects both expansion and consolidation among independent firms: Demand for independent advice should continue to support the sector, although talent shortages, higher costs and broader service expectations are likely to favour firms with greater scale.

 

From Custodian to Strategic Partner

Chow heads Bank of Singapore’s global Financial Intermediaries (FIM) business, with dedicated teams across Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. The bank announced in June 2026 that she would also serve as global segment lead for FIM, responsible for the strategy and proposition of a business whose team had tripled across those markets over the preceding three years.

The growth has accompanied a broader shift in how the bank approaches the segment. Chow contrasts its model with the more traditional role of a custodian serving external asset managers (EAMs), where the relationship can be concentrated around execution, booking and safekeeping.

“We do not see our FIM partners simply as clients using an execution and custody platform,” Chow says. “We see them as strategic growth partners, so the question is what else we can bring that is complementary to the way they want to expand their businesses.”

That distinction influences the coverage model. A relationship manager (RM) supporting an intermediary needs to understand the economics, operating requirements and strategic priorities of a firm managing relationships on behalf of multiple end-clients. It is therefore a business-to-business relationship as much as a conventional private banking one.

Alongside the dedicated coverage teams, Chow points to institutional-level investment engagement and market intelligence intended to support firms in their own client conversations.

The broader Bank of Singapore and OCBC proposition is another component. Bank of Singapore operates as a pure private bank with an open-architecture model, while its position as a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC provides access to capabilities extending beyond private banking. OCBC is rated Aa1 by Moody’s and AA- by Fitch and S&P.

“For an intermediary, there is a benefit in having both sides,” Chow says. “You have a private bank built around the client and open architecture, but behind that you also have the capabilities of a much larger banking group.”

Bank of Singapore reported that FIM assets under management (AUM) rose by more than 30% in 2025.

Building the Digital Platform Around the Firms

Chow sees continued platform development as fundamental to improving the way intermediaries work with the bank.

Bank of Singapore has been investing in BOS IX, its digital platform for financial intermediaries. The system gives firms access to portfolio information, client positions and reporting, while also allowing selected trades to be executed on a self-service basis.

The objective is to reduce dependence on manual interaction for routine tasks and give intermediary teams quicker access to the information required to service their clients.

“If they need a client statement or want to understand the portfolio, they should be able to obtain that themselves rather than waiting for an RM to come back to them,” Chow says. “The platform needs to help them manage their clients more efficiently.”

Development has become increasingly collaborative. Bank of Singapore works with selected FIM partners before launching new functionality, asking what information they want to see and how they want to use it.

That feedback can extend to practical questions such as whether firms want consolidated views of their largest relationships, how AUM should be displayed and which functions should be immediately accessible.

Chow says this process has been tightened over the past two years, helping the bank prioritise functionality around actual intermediary workflows.

The emphasis is consistent with Bank of Singapore’s March 2026 survey of 90 senior leaders and client-facing professionals in the FIM industry. Customer experience and engagement emerged as the leading priority, cited by 63% of respondents, while 46% identified artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation and automation.

Investment Access and Wider Advisory Capabilities

Investment access remains another important part of the proposition.

Bank of Singapore already provides FIM partners with the capabilities of its wider private banking investment platform, but Chow sees alternatives as particularly important as independent firms seek to broaden what they can offer sophisticated clients.

In October 2024, the bank launched FIM Alternatives Select with iCapital, initially offering close to 30 funds specifically to its FIM partners. Bank of Singapore now describes the proposition as providing access to more than 1,600 funds from over 600 asset managers through iCapital.

For smaller or developing intermediary businesses, building equivalent access independently can require multiple relationships, additional due diligence and greater operating infrastructure.

“Alternatives are becoming much more relevant to these firms and their clients,” Chow says. “If we can provide that access through the platform, it gives them another capability they do not necessarily have to build themselves.”

The relationship can also move beyond investment products.

As EAMs expand their role with clients, Chow is seeing greater demand for support around trusts, family office planning, next-generation engagement and family governance. Bank of Singapore’s wealth advisory teams can work alongside intermediaries on those requirements.

 

“The client now wants much more than traditional investment management,” she says. “The intermediary needs to be able to have conversations around the family, the next generation and governance. Our role is to help them broaden that engagement.”

 

Bringing OCBC into the Relationship

The internationalisation of Asian wealth makes access to the wider OCBC Group particularly relevant.

Chow describes end-clients whose private wealth, operating businesses, property holdings and family members may sit across several countries. In those circumstances, the requirements can move quickly beyond the boundaries of a private banking portfolio.

Bank of Singapore partners with OCBC Global Markets on investment structuring and draws on the wider OCBC Group’s corporate and commercial banking capabilities when relevant to client requirements.

Financing can also be brought into the relationship where clients want to unlock liquidity from businesses, property or other assets.

The aim is to assemble those capabilities around the intermediary rather than remove it from the centre of the client relationship.

 

“As clients become more global, their wealth and their businesses are sitting in different places,” Chow says. “We can bring the relevant parts of the group together and work with the intermediary to deliver one broader solution.”

 

Using AI to Reduce the Onboarding Burden

Few processes illustrate the operational pressure on wealth managers as clearly as onboarding.

Source-of-wealth assessment, adverse-news checking, documentation and compliance review can consume substantial time for both intermediaries and bank relationship managers. Chow sees AI as one way of making that process more efficient without removing the judgement and control required around client acceptance.

Bank of Singapore began addressing the process in October 2025 with its Source of Wealth Assistant (SOWA). The tool uses AI to help construct the source-of-wealth narrative required during due diligence. The bank has said SOWA reduced preparation of source-of-wealth reports from as long as 10 days to around one hour, while retaining RM review and internal compliance assessment.

The next development is HELIOS, or Holistic wEalth Lifecycle Insights & Ongoing Surveillance, an agentic-AI platform being used by Bank of Singapore RMs in Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai.

HELIOS draws together public-domain information to help assess matters including an individual’s source of wealth, estimated net worth and potential risk indicators. It can also consolidate adverse or reputational information into a report for the RM.

Chow sees the value for FIM partners in bringing the intermediary’s client information together with the bank’s analysis earlier in the process.

“The intermediary is collecting information from the client, while our RM can use the platform to pull together the due diligence from our side,” she explains. “You can then match the two much earlier in the process and shorten the overall turnaround time.”

OCBC has said the new process is expected to allow account opening to be completed in around 15 business days, compared with an industry median of approximately six weeks.

For Chow, the wider benefit is capacity. Better workflow and faster analysis should allow intermediary firms and the bank to manage growth without allowing onboarding requirements to absorb a disproportionate amount of specialist time.

Building a FIM Community

Chow also wants the relationship between Bank of Singapore and its FIM partners to extend beyond products and infrastructure.

The bank has developed a series of events intended to connect intermediary firms with each other and with Bank of Singapore’s senior leadership. Its overseas FIM conference, now in its third year, brings selected partners together for several days of networking, discussion and engagement with the bank.

A chief executive officer (CEO) roundtable is also intended to give participating firms a more direct role in shaping future priorities.

“We want them to tell us what they need next,” Chow says. “If you want to build an ecosystem rather than simply provide a service, you need the firms involved in shaping it with you.”

The approach increasingly includes end-clients. Bank of Singapore has been developing smaller events where FIM partners can bring clients into discussions with the bank’s investment and advisory specialists.

A recent Hong Kong event, for example, adapted the bank’s wider chief investment officer (CIO) summit into a more closely held session for FIMs and their clients.

For Chow, these engagements help reinforce the intermediary’s own proposition by giving firms access to senior investment and advisory expertise that they can incorporate into their client relationships.

 

Key Priorities

Chow identifies three principal priorities for the FIM business.

The first is continued development of the platform. BOSIX is expected to become more comprehensive across multi-asset trading, reporting and workflow, with HELIOS increasingly incorporated into the client onboarding process.

The second is to broaden the ecosystem available through open architecture. Bank of Singapore can aggregate access to brokers and counterparties through its own infrastructure, potentially reducing the number of separate relationships an intermediary needs to establish and maintain.

“If a firm wants access to 20 counterparties, it can build all those relationships itself, but that requires time, people and cost,” Chow says. “Where we can provide that access through us, we are helping them keep their own operating model more efficient.”

The third is to deepen access to specialist advisory capabilities including trusts, philanthropy and sustainability, particularly as FIMs take on broader responsibilities for their end-clients.

Across these priorities sits a longer-term technology agenda. Following feedback from intermediary leaders, Chow expects the focus on AI to move beyond onboarding towards other workflows across the client lifecycle.

 

Into the Future

Chow expects the Asian independent wealth management industry to expand over the coming five years.

One driver is the continued creation and concentration of wealth in Asia. Another is the maturation of clients themselves. As families become wealthier and more financially sophisticated, Chow expects more to value independent advice and the ability to diversify assets among several private banks while retaining a single principal advisory relationship.

The next generation is likely to reinforce that shift.

“They may want several banks behind them, but they do not necessarily want to speak to several people,” Chow says. “If they can see everything digitally, even better. If they need to speak to someone, they want one person who understands the whole picture.”

That development will place greater demands on FIMs.

Firms historically built around investment management are increasingly being asked to coordinate areas such as philanthropy, sustainability, private equity (PE), governance and succession. Chow believes that widening remit will intensify the industry’s existing talent challenge.

Specialist employees are expensive and not always readily available. As a result, she expects some firms to seek greater scale through mergers, while private equity and other investors continue to look at established EAM businesses.

She does not see consolidation as inconsistent with overall industry growth. New firms should continue to emerge as experienced private bankers choose independence, while some existing businesses combine into larger platforms capable of supporting more institutional infrastructure.

Demographics may add another dimension. Longer careers could encourage experienced bankers approaching conventional retirement age to establish or join independent firms, allowing them to continue managing a smaller number of long-standing relationships outside a large banking organisation.

“I think FIMs will continue to spring up because clients want independent advice and experienced bankers still want to work with their clients,” Chow says. “At the same time, you will see consolidation because the capabilities they need are becoming broader and the cost of building everything alone is getting higher.”

For Bank of Singapore, that should create demand for a FIM proposition able to support both ends of the market: newer independent firms requiring institutional infrastructure and larger businesses seeking greater scale and operating efficiency.

 

Getting Personal with Annabelle Chow

Chow was born and educated in Singapore, graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a degree in business administration, specialising in finance. She began her career in consumer banking before moving into private banking.

An important early influence was a manager she worked with at Credit Suisse. Just a few months after joining the bank, Chow was given the opportunity to enter its relationship manager (RM) training programme. She went on to become a private banking RM at 24.

“I was very young, and he took a bet on me,” she recalls. “That stayed with me. With the right opportunity and a supportive manager, somebody can grow much faster than you might expect.”

Her move into the external asset manager (EAM) business came later through her work with colleagues in Switzerland and the support of senior leaders within the organisation. When a multi-family office relationship in Hong Kong required someone with experience in securities lending and collateral financing, Chow was given the opportunity to cover it.

Around two years later, despite still being the youngest member of the team, she was asked to become a team head and help develop the Singapore EAM business.

Those experiences continue to shape her approach to leadership. Chow places considerable emphasis on developing people internally and giving younger colleagues opportunities based on capability rather than tenure. In Singapore, five of the Financial Intermediaries team’s 11 RMs were promoted from assistant backgrounds.

“You have to develop and cultivate people,” she says. “If somebody has the ability, you need to give them the chance to step up.”

Curiosity is equally important. Chow believes younger colleagues can bring perspectives that more experienced professionals may overlook, although managers need to create an environment where they feel comfortable contributing.

“Once you stop asking questions, you stop learning,” she says. “New blood brings a fresh perspective.”

Outside work, Chow is married with two young children. With both parents travelling regularly for work, Chow says much of their available time is spent together as a family.

Parenting has also sharpened her patience and willingness to listen. “You come home from work, and you have to inhale, exhale and really listen to what the children are asking,” she says. “In some ways, it is good training. It teaches you to see things from another person’s perspective and reminds you to listen more and talk less.”

Exercise also features in her own routine. Pilates has been a longstanding interest, while team events have prompted her to try pickleball and, more recently, padel. She also considers herself a beginner tennis player, naming Roger Federer as the household favourite and Carlos Alcaraz as her preferred current player.

The broader philosophy is consistent with her approach to work: remain curious, keep trying unfamiliar things and avoid assuming that seniority means having every answer.

“Stay calm, take a deep breath, listen more and talk less,” she says.