Carina Lee

OCBC has appointed Carina Lee as group chief risk officer and a member of the management committee, with effect from January 1 2026. Lee, currently the group chief credit officer for the wholesale banking business, succeeds Noel Gerald DCruz, who is retiring on December 31 2025 after a 36-year career with the bank.

DCruz, who joined OCBC in 1989, was appointed group chief risk officer in January 2023. Under his leadership, OCBC says in a statement, the bank’s risk management teams were strengthened. Portfolio diversification, early problem recognition, and timely provisioning contributed to a more resilient portfolio with the non-performing ratio falling to approximately 1%, the lowest in many years. The management of risks associated with liquidity, interest rate, and structural foreign exchange was further enhanced. The teams also initiated programmes to uplift the oversight of non-financial risks in the areas of operational resilience, cyber security, third-party risk management, AI governance, and data loss.

Prior to his appointment as group chief risk officer, DCruz was the head of risk portfolio management, where he drove the implementation of data-driven risk quantification approaches for the bank’s credit portfolios and the identification of emerging risks. These approaches are today extensively used in the bank’s credit processes, and in assessing capital adequacy and allowances. DCruz was also instrumental in the establishment of a group-wide data management and governance framework.

Lee has over 28 years of banking experience in business and risk management. She joined OCBC in January 2021 and is responsible for managing the credit risks of the group’s wholesale banking loan portfolio, covering small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates, financial institutions, sovereigns, and counterparties. She chairs the group credit risk management committee, which is accountable to the board risk management committee.

Lee has led various key initiatives to enhance the group’s credit policies, processes, systems, and counterparty credit risk capabilities. She supported the wholesale banking business in diversifying its loan portfolio to encompass high-growth and emerging industries, such as technology, media, and telecommunications, and set the foundation for growth in the OCBC SME franchise in the group’s core markets.

From June 2021 to June 2025, she served as a director on the board of OCBC China.

Prior to joining OCBC, Lee was with a global bank for over two decades, holding several senior leadership roles across business and risk functions. These included positions in operational risk management, and credit policy and processes for its wholesale banking business. Earlier in her time in Singapore with that bank, Lee had also been the deputy head of local corporates and head of the China desk.