A top court in Hong Kong has ruled against the Singapore-headquartered bank in a case concerning the private banking business that it bought in 2009.

Hong Kong's High Court has reportedly ruled against Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp's private bank, now known as Bank of Singapore, in a mis-selling case, saying the unit and a relationship manager breached their contractual duty towards an elderly couple who lost money on investments made with ING's private bank.

The ING business was bought by OCBC in 2009, and subsequently renamed as Bank of Singapore.

“These transactions were entered into in 2008, with ING Asia Private Bank. After OCBC Bank bought ING Asia Private Bank in 2009 and renamed it Bank of Singapore in 2010, policies, processes and people training and development were much enhanced to be in line with OCBC Bank’s high standards of fair dealing and product suitability assessments. Today, Bank of Singapore operates its business within a strong control and compliance environment," Koh Ching Ching, head, group corporate communications, OCBC Bank, said in am emailed statement to this publication.

In a court judgment on 8 August, the court said Bank of Singapore and banker Yvetti Chau Kwan-siu had failed "to exercise reasonable care and skill" in assessing the couple's investment objectives and risk appetite, in offering them unsuitable investments and in failing to warn them of the risks, according to a report by The Business Times.

The couple, Chang Pui-yin and Theresa Linda Chang Chen, said they suffered substantial losses on investments made with ING Groep NV's private bank between 2004 and 2008, the report said.