OCBC Bank has appointed 33-year bank veteran Noel Gerald DCruz as its group chief risk officer as of January 1 2023, succeeding Vincent Choo who will stay on as an adviser.

DCruz, who currently heads the group risk portfolio management department and the group data management office, has been closely involved in the reorganization of the bank’s credit risk management structure, the set-up of the credit risk management committee and various specialized risk management units. He has also been covering for Choo in his absence as the acting chief risk officer over the years.

With the appointment to his expanded role, DCruz will become a member of the management committee and the management executive committee.

He joined OCBC Bank in 1989 after a stint with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. With the revision of the Basel Capital Management framework and later the International Financial Reporting Standards, he led the OCBC Group programme to implement ratings-based and modelling approaches for the bank’s credit portfolios.

These approaches are extensively used in the bank’s credit processes, and in its assessment of capital adequacy and allowances. Since 2017 he also established the group data management office to drive implementation of a group-wide data governance and management framework.

In addition to DCruz, two other senior managers were also earlier elevated from within the ranks to the C-suite, namely Goh Chin Yee to group chief financial officer and Sunny Quek as head of global consumer financial services.

Promoting from within the bank reflects the strength and depth of its talent pool, says Helen Wong, group CEO of OCBC Bank. “DCruz has built and strengthened the group’s portfolio risk oversight and management, and he will continue to ably assess and mitigate a panoply of risks facing the bank amid today’s increasingly uncertain environment.”