CIMB Bank's Benjamin Tan shares insights on leadership and success

The Head of Commercial Banking thinks that the 'human touch' elements of CIMB are what sets them apart from other digital banks.

Benjamin started his journey as a banker in real estate development and project financing. After 11 years in banking, he ventured into property development in Malaysia, where he completed a commercial project in Selangor and was awarded the Best Boutique Developer and Innovative Developer in the 2018 ASEAN Property Awards.

With his ventures successful and running on its own, he then decided to join CIMB Bank Berhad, Singapore in 2019 and became the ASEAN Head of Sales & Strategy. After a year, he took over as Head of CIMB Commercial Banking Singapore where his strategy is to concisely segregate portfolios based on a company's profile and business needs to ensure that solutions and services are developed and provided from a customer-centric perspective.

The results of all their hard work have been successful, with one of their segments (SME Segment) in commercial banking winning the Global Business Outlook's Best SME Financing. Meanwhile, CIMB’s first Chatbot EVA was nominated as the Top 40 MAS Fintech Solutions for 2020.

When asked what makes a great leader, this avid scuba diver, obstacle-racer, history buff, music lover, thrill-seeker, and traveler goes by one mantra: "A manager orders while a leader inspires." For someone who values humility and respect for everyone, he believes that a leader needs to be clear and consistent while adopting the “balcony and dance floor" approach. This means that he allows his team to display their talents on stage while he stands on the balcony making sure that the "dance floor and dancers" are always aligned to the company's business objectives.

Singapore Business Review is honoured to sit down with Benjamin as he gives some of his thoughts about being strategic building, his goals as Head of Commercial Banking of CIMB, project launches-and why his number one fan is his seven-year-old son.

Tell us more about your career leading up to your appointment as CIMB Bank Singapore's Head of Commercial Banking. How did your more than two decades of experience in the banking industry shape you to be the leader you are now?

I started my banking career in real-estate development and project financing in Keppel TatLee Bank 1999 and subsequently moved to Maybank in 2002, covering cross-border trade financing and project financing. Then, in 2005, I joined Citibusiness and gained new exposure to the SME segment where I headed a team covering liabilities. I also double hatted as an Investment consultant.

My next banking stint with Standard Chartered Bank moved me to Dubai in 2006 where I started and headed the SME Banking Asian desk. After successfully setting up the business unit in Dubai, I moved back to Singapore in 2007 to head the Medium Enterprise & Cash Management team, a core pillar in driving the bank's SME strategy in Singapore.

In 2009, I was part of the pioneer team to integrate the merger between Standard Chartered and Hsin Chu Bank. I was seconded to Taiwan and became the GM of SME banking in 2011. It became the largest foreign bank in Taiwan in a short period, and was the first foreign bank to partner with the Taiwan Credit Bureau and Government Loan Insurance Scheme, to offer the market's first 5 days service pledge for small business loans.

After 11 years in banking, I dipped my toes into property development in Malaysia and successfully completed a commercial project and was awarded the 'Best Boutique Developer' and 'Innovative Developer' in the 2018 ASEAN Property Awards.

In 2019, I decided to join CIMB Bank Berhad, Singapore branch as the ASEAN Head of Sales & Strategy. In 2020, I took over as Head of Commercial Banking at CIMB Singapore.

What innovations or improvements are you bringing to the table?

My strength is in pioneering strategic builds, which will enable the bank to achieve sustainable growth with a strong foundation. Recognising that we are not a universal commercial bank in Singapore, we need to compete on our strengths and therefore need to identify various customer segments that we want to participate in.

Internally, it's really about going back to basics, improving productivity and efficiency through the simplification of processes, breaking down silos, forging collaborations within the departments, and improving data analytics and architecture while establishing clear deliverables with appropriate risk appetite.

Externally, we will deliver our services from a solutions perspective instead of from a product angle. To a customer, it's not about how good our product is but rather how relevant our solutions are. We are constantly working with our strategic partners to develop beyond banking business solutions so that CIMB is not just a bank but also a partner for growth for our customers.

This is also aligned with CIMB’s Forward 23+ strategy of being the leading ASEAN-focused bank as we focus on key markets and segments, with a targeted approach levering on our strengths and value-add.

Could you share with us your goals as the Head of Commercial Banking CIMB SG? What milestones is the bank aiming to achieve with you as the leader-and how do you plan to guide the bank to achieve these?

Four major goals come to mind:

Anchoring customer relationships

As our customer base increases, we need to be cognisant not to neglect our existing customers. We will segment and right-size our portfolio according to 1) small business, 2) medium enterprise and 3) mid-size corporates. We will also develop value propositions for each of these segments with an overlaying internal customer growth journey across all segments that capture the entire growth cycle of a company's needs. Our performance measures have also been recalibrated to place a stronger emphasis on customer satisfaction and driving 'main bank' relationships.

Build a resilient balance sheet for sustainable growth

CIMB Singapore has traditionally focused on the larger corporates from certain industries that pose concentration risk to our business. Hence, we will diversify our income streams into the SME space and grow our annuity income through fee-related services. We will also leverage our data analytics capability to strengthen our asset quality management to ensure our balance sheet is more resistant to external shocks so our growth can be sustainable in the long term.

Drive 'One Bank' Approach

Breaking down silos, forging collaborations with our colleagues from Consumer, Private Wholesale and Investment Banking across our ASEAN footprint will allow us to have a more holistic and complete value proposition to our clients. With a 'One Bank One Stop' proposition, I believe we can better leverage the competitive advantage that will propel us to reach our vision of becoming the preferred ASEAN Commercial Bank in Singapore.

An Employer of Choice

Our business is essentially a people business. Happy employees + happy customers = Sustainable growth. We need to empower, get the "buy-in" and give due recognition so everyone has a sense of purpose when they come to work. Fostering teamwork through creating win-win situations such as collective performance measures can further help to compact our organisation cohesiveness and create a healthy corporate culture.

The pandemic has greatly changed the way people approach banking and financing. How have the developments of the past year impacted CIMB Singapore? Could you elaborate more on projects you may have launched or past initiatives that aided the bank through this period of rapid digital transformation?

The pandemic has taught everyone that we live in a global community and events that appear far away can also impact us. When the global impact of COVID-19 unfolded, CIMB saw the need to be at the frontline with its business customers to battle the unknown and ease cash flow burdens. Having only two branches and a nimble team proved to be an advantage as CIMB could quickly roll out products that could serve the community.

Prior to January 2020, CIMB did not have an SME segment, but with the Bank's internal strategy (titled 'Forward 23+' initiatives), the SME segment was swiftly set up within four months. This was in time to offer financial assistance to COVID-19 impacted SMEs. The set-up includes an SME-lending programme, a process flow revamp that was adapted to the SDAG guidelines, and an SME asset quality risk-tiered management to monitor credit deterioration preemptively. A Debt Relief programme was also set up for COVID-19 affected SMEs.

In 2020, we were the-

• First to announce and launch the Enterprise Singapore EWCL & TBL loans
• Second to announce preferential rates of 2.88%
• First bank to partner SBF-YBLN to help SMEs acquire ESG funding to provide long term financial assistance
• First bank to launch a Chatbot to assess COVID-19 schemes eligibility assessment
• First bank to launch Debt Relief Schemes providing both P+I moratorium

Together with the team, CIMB Commercial Banking Singapore embarked on the CIMB Group-wide Forward 23+ vision to be the leading ASEAN-focused bank, by concisely segregating the portfolio based on a company's profile and business needs, to ensure that solutions and services are developed and provided from a customer-centric perspective.

There are three segments in Commercial Banking Singapore, starting with the newly launched SME Segment in March 2020, with the mandate to offer fast and simple solutions for homogeneous companies through a program approach.

The Medium Enterprise Segment offers one-stop solutions to service companies with needs for a more comprehensive range of financial services with the objective of relationship deepening. The Middle Corporations Segment is focused on anchoring main bank relationships via offering customized solutions to cover complex and customized sophisticated needs of larger companies.

This will enable CIMB Commercial Banking Singapore to serve a company through its growth lifecycle, with targeted product and services; managed through a structured customer-focused journey to ensure the Commercial Banking arm of CIMB Bank Singapore continues to remain as a relevant growth partner to its customers.

On the digital transformation journey, I always remind myself that while technology can aid in the speed and ease of delivery of our services, we must not forget the 'human touch' elements of our business because that is what sets us apart from a digital bank. While we understand that customers want speed and remote accessibility to perform their banking transactions, they still prefer the human touch when it comes to discussing their needs, especially in difficult times.

As a follow-up question to number four, do you agree that customer-centricity is now the main driver in commercial banking during the pandemic?

Customer-centricity is one of the main drivers and the cornerstone is to treat our customers fairly. We need to build and maintain the trust and loyalty of our customers, along with a solid reputation. That's where relationship-building is important. Our clients have told us how much they appreciate that our Relationship Managers (RMs) are always available no matter what time. Over the years, we have demonstrated that we're always there for our customers-that they get to talk to an actual human being instead of an answering machine or a call centre. That's something we're proud of. But, beyond that, we're also constantly looking into how we can quickly roll out solutions and services they need in today's business context. We want to be there with them every step of the way.

What can customers expect from CIMB Singapore in 2021? Could you give us a sneak peek of any upcoming projects or initiatives?

We are looking to launch a service pledge, to ensure that high and efficient standards of processing applications are provided to our customers. We are also developing value propositions through our digital CASA account, bundled with curated services, solutions, and partners, which will benefit our customers in terms of costs, productivity and convenience.

Is there anything you would like to add that we could have missed?

I am an active and curious person by nature, so I cannot sit still in one place for too long. I am constantly challenging myself to be part of new adventures and seeking out new experiences. I like adrenaline-pumping activities such as motorsports, obstacle-racing and scuba diving. I also like to travel to exotic places, interact with nature and people from different cultures.

In my spare time, I love to read about current affairs, political history and astronomy as it gives me context to what the future has in store for the human race. In my spare time, I love to travel with my family and my number one fan is my seven year-old-son because he is the only one intrigued by my gibberish!