Magnificent Obsession, starring Rock Hudson, was a 1954 Hollywood movie whose title also happened to be how former OCBC chairman Tan Chin Tuan described his passion to build his bank’s flagship, the OCBC Centre.

OCBC Bank’s readiness to bring in top-calibre people with no links to the bank or its major shareholders was a key to its success, Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan said yesterday.

The story of the home-grown bank and its former chairman and managing director, Mr Tan Chin Tuan, is told in a new book that goes behind the scenes.