[11] OCBC is consistently ranked amongst the top three "safest banks in the world" by the magazine Global Finance.

[13] The bank's global network has grown to comprise more than 400 branches and representative offices in 19 countries and regions.

Lee played a central role in leading the amalgamation and is affectionately known today as the "founding father" of OCBC Bank.

[19] In 1942 during World War II, all the local banks in Singapore closed briefly during the early days of the Japanese Occupation.

[22] The bank was criticized for not expanding fast enough to meet the needs of the post-war Chinese business community, especially in the smaller towns of Malaya.

One of the critics was Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat (then deputy general manager) who resigned in 1959 after failing to be appointed to the bank’s board of directors, and subsequently set up Malayan Banking in Kuala Lumpur in 1960 with 80 former OCBC staff.

[19] On 25 June 2004, OCBC Bank established a wholly owned subsidiary e2 Power Pte Ltd to provide back-office operations and technology support and transaction processing services in Singapore.

A similar operating company, e2 Power Sdn Bhd was also set up on 21 July 2004 in Malaysia.

[27] On 11 May 2017, OCBC entered into an agreement to acquire National Australia Bank’s private wealth business in Singapore and Hong Kong.

In March 2020, OCBC announced its partnership with Xero, a New Zealand-based cloud accounting software, to help small and medium-sized enterprise customers digitise their operations.

[30] In July 2020, OCBC launched HealthPass, a healthcare mobile application that aims to connect patients with medical doctors in Singapore via online consultation.

It stated that this OCBC MyOwn Account would be registered solely in the name of the child, but would only be operable "within boundaries and controls set by parents".

[39] With branches in Hong Kong and Dubai and a representative office in Makati City, Bank of Singapore serves high-net-worth individuals and wealthy families of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Middle East and Europe, as well as global Non-Resident Indians.

As of 30 September 2010, Bank OCBC NISP had 5,995 employees, total assets of Rp 40.2 trillion, and served customers through a network of 411 offices in 62 cities and 576 ATMs throughout Indonesia.

OCBC Al-Amin Bank Berhad was the first Singapore-based Islamic Bank established in Malaysia in 2008 to provide a full range of Shariah-compliant financial solutions based on the applicable Shariah contract and with the endorsement of the Shariah Advisory Committee.

[43] Headquartered in Shanghai, OCBC China employs around 1,500 staff at its head office and 16 branches and sub-branches across 14 cities in China's mainland, covering Shanghai, Suzhou, Shaoxing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan, Xiamen, Zhuhai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Beijing, Tianjin and Qingdao.

OCBC subsequently raised its stake in the renamed Bank of Ningbo to 20% (the maximum allowed) in 2014.

[47] In December 2021, nearly 470 customers of OCBC lost a combined S$8.5 million after fallen prey to phishing scams involving OCBC, when scammers took advantage of old short message service (SMS) technology to impersonate the bank to send unsolicited SMSes and dupe victims into handing over their online banking log-in details.

[49] In June 2023, OCBC was fined S$600,000 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for breaching anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing rules, in a matter related to the German payments provider Wirecard scandal between June 2015 and January 2016 relating to accounts maintained by one corporate customer.

The bank also failed to probe into the customer’s ownership and control structure when its declared beneficial owner was not named in its corporate registration documents.

[56][57] On 1 September 2024, at about 11.50am, OCBC acknowledged that some users were having difficulties using its internet and mobile banking services.