Profile of Principal Consultants

Senior Managing Director, Advisory Services

Michael Lau Hwai Keong, CFA

As a key member of Octagon Advisor’s consulting team, Michael leads the firm’s corporate and business strategy practice.  He has advised several of our clients on their strategies particularly in the financial services industry, including identification of strategic and business opportunities.  He has also successfully undertaken and overseen consulting projects for Asian banks and financial institutions in the areas of Basel II/III, enterprise risk management and internal control organization and process reviews, risk reporting to boards, funds transfer pricing and cost and revenue allocation and development of consumer banking and wealth management businesses.  Michael has also led projects to advise on the development of financial center and financial markets in the Middle East and North Africa.

Michael brings with him both private sector and regulatory experiences. Prior to joining Octagon, Michael was Executive Vice President, International at United Overseas Bank (UOB), a leading banking group in Singapore. He was responsible for the governance and administration of UOB’s banking business and operations outside Singapore and in developing the bank’s overseas business both organically and via acquisitions. 

Michael held positions at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, including Senior Deputy Director (Domestic Institutions and Development).  His responsibilities included the supervision of domestic banks and financial institutions and the development of Singapore as a financial centre, including its payment infrastructure.

Besides banking, Michael also has experience in the capital markets industry.  He was Executive Vice President of Singapore’s Central Depository, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Stock Exchange of Singapore (now Singapore Exchange), and was an institutional stock broker with a leading Singapore securities company. 

Michael graduated from the National University of Singapore with a First Class Honours degree in Business Administration. He is also a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst charter.

Managing Director, Advisory Services

Chiah Kok Hoe, CFA, CA (Singapore)

As a key member of Octagon Advisors’ consulting team, Kok Hoe successfully managed and completed a number of consulting projects for large regional banks in the areas of Basel II/III including internal credit rating model development and validation; economic capital, risk appetite setting, capital management and ICAAP; stress testing; liquidity risk management, banking book interest rate risk management, market risk management and treasury controls; FTP, cost allocation and performance measurement; operational risk management and anti-money laundering; and ESG, sustainability and climate risk management.

Before joining Octagon Advisors, Kok Hoe was a First Vice President in Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), the country’s leading banking group, where he headed the Credit Approval and Portfolio Management functions for UOB’s consumer banking unit.  Kok Hoe spearheaded the development of credit scoring models for unsecured consumer products for efficient and risk-sensitive approval and account management, and supervised the bank’s consumer loans collection team to optimise the recovery rate. 

Kok Hoe was the Project Manager for UOB’s efforts to introduce changes to its policies, models, processes and systems to meet requirements under Basel II capital framework.  He was also involved in the design and implementation of Funds Transfer Pricing (FTP), Cost Allocation and Capital Attribution framework and methodology within the bank, which are key components of risk-based performance measurement.

Before joining UOB, Kok Hoe was a Vice President in Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client units in Singapore and London. Kok Hoe has also held appointments relating to regulation and development of the financial futures market in the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Kok Hoe holds a First Class Honours degree in Accountancy from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, and a Masters Degree in Financial Engineering from the National University of Singapore. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst charter and holds CA (Singapore) membership.

Managing Director, Advisory Services

Chng Say Keong

As a key member of Octagon Advisors’ consulting team, Say Keong successfully managed and completed a number of consulting projects for large regional banks in the areas of CRM, Wealth Management, back-office operating models development, branch process and organisation review and design, Basel II/III, internal credit rating model validation, capital management (Pillar II), ALM (including development of behavioral and cashflow models), risk appetite setting, operational risk management, enterprise risk management, Board and Senior Management risk reporting, global market operations end-to-end system and process review, and internal control assessments.

Before joining Octagon Advisors, Say Keong was a First Vice President in Singapore’s United Overseas Bank, the country’s leading banking group, where he headed its Retail Banking Division.  His responsibilities included managing UOB’s Mass Market retail customer segment, the bank’s deposit product portfolio and also driving the bank’s multi-channel strategy. 

In his previous UOB appointments, Say Keong served as an IT project manager in the bank’s IT Sector, where he was responsible for the development, design and project management of various systems, including UOB’s loan origination system, retail electronic delivery channels (ATM, Call Centre, etc), risk management systems and Internet Banking platforms.  Say Keong was also a member of the Project Management Office for the UOB-OUB Merger Integration Project, and played a key role in UOB’s CRM implementation project, where he was responsible for the implementation of various strategic initiatives as defined in the CRM Blueprint.

Say Keong holds a Second Class Upper Honours degree in Computer Science from the National University of Singapore. He also has a Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Marketing Institute of Singapore.

Managing Director, Advisory Services

Chan Chin Hiang

As a key member of Octagon Advisors’ consulting team, Chin Hiang successfully managed and completed a number of consulting projects for large regional banks in the areas of market risk management (including pricing/valuation model development and validation), ALM (including development of behavioral and cashflow models), global market operations end-to-end system and process review, market risk organisation/process reviews, Basel II/III, credit rating model development and validation, and capital management (Pillar II).

Before joining Octagon Advisors, Chin Hiang was a Vice President with the Risk Policies and Quantitative Research Unit of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), the country’s leading banking group.  He was responsible for providing quantitative research and support to the Bank, especially in the areas of market risk, credit risk and interest rate risk. In addition, he was also responsible for validating all major systems used by the Bank, including the WallStreet System for Treasury, Algorithmics’ RiskWatch System for Market Risk, AL Sendero for Interest Rate Risk, S&P’s Default Filter for Corporate Rating and various other spreadsheet systems developed in-house for monitoring the Bank’s risk exposures. 

Chin Hiang was also involved in the development of the application and behavioral scoring models for consumer credits, as well as the Bank’s internal rating models for corporate and SMEs exposures.

Before joining UOB, Chin Hiang was an Assistant Director with the Monetary Authority of Singapore where he was a key member of the unit responsible for its risk management function. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Vice President with the risk management unit of the Singapore Exchange.

Chin Hiang holds a First Class Honours degree in Mathematics and a Masters Degree in Financial Engineering from the National University of Singapore.

Executive Director, Advisory Services

Tan Kwang Yew

As a key member of Octagon Advisors’ consulting team, Kwang Yew successfully managed and completed a number of consulting projects for large regional banks in the areas of Basel II/III, internal credit rating model (including retail and non-retail PD, LGD and EAD) development and validation, ALM (including development of behavioral and cashflow models), FTP, ESG, sustainability and climate risk management.

Kwang Yew’s prior professional experience in the consumer banking unit of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) was principal responsibility for credit scoring and predictive modeling.  His scope of work included the development and on-going enhancement of individual customers’ Behavioral and Acquisitions Score Model, as well as monitoring the performance of the consumer loan portfolio. 

Kwang Yew was responsible for the use of analytical tools to manage consumer portfolio’s risk and ensuring that best practice risk capabilities for decision engines and support systems were adopted and deployed.  In addition, he was part of the UOB Basel II consultative team, responsible for assessing the risk drivers for various consumer products and implementing changes to policies, processes and systems to meet requirements under Basel II capital framework.

Before joining UOB, Kwang Yew was with Singapore’s Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), where he was involved in process re-engineering work.  In one of the process re-engineering projects, he assisted OCBC Malaysia in centralizing and stream-lining their credit approval process and operations.  He was also responsible for overseeing the portfolio, vintage and scorecard performance monitoring.

Kwang Yew holds a First Class Honours degree in Engineering from National University of Singapore (NUS).  He also holds a Masters of Engineering from NUS and a Masters of Risk Management from Australia’s Monash University.