The Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation announced a refresh of its logo amidst a trend of "shorter, snappier names and sleeker corporate image" amongst banks in Singapore during the 1980s.

The new design abbreviated the name of bank to "OCBC Bank", and was accompanied by a motif of a Chinese junk ship that the bank had used as a symbol since its founding. Unlike previous versions which were illustrated, this iteration—the fourth in its history—came in a modern, abstract form. A circular shape, which signified the bank's stability and strength, contained lines on one side to depict the sails of a junk and waves to give a sense of movement. The logo was rendered red because of its association with prosperity, success and was the national colour of Singapore.

In 1998, this logo was refreshed by Design in Action. The agency retained much of this design with updates to its choice of typeface.