Chocolate Finance CEO on turning a crisis into a 'money can't buy' reach

When a financial firm faces half a billion dollars in withdrawals over three days, most CEOs would be forgiven for ducking behind the polished statements of a communications team. Walter de Oude, however, isn’t most CEOs.

The founder and CEO of Chocolate Finance, and previously Singlife, still recalls the March incident as a turning point, not just for his company but for how leaders should approach crisis communications in a hyper-transparent age.

“I was in Switzerland when a post from some influencers triggered a huge number of withdrawals from Chocolate Finance. I flew back immediately, and went straight from the airport to a televised CNA interview, to tell the story with as much transparency as possible. Customers needed reassurance that their money truly safe and secure their money was with Chocolate, despite all the news in the media,” he shared at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s PR Asia conference in Singapore.

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The outspoken CEO explained, "We made two mistakes that triggered the withdrawal event. The first was that we changed our miles programme abruptly to correct a loophole usecase that we had previously missed. The second was that we hadn’t communicated well enough with customers that during periods of high withdrawals, withdrawals take 3-6 days instead of being instant, and customers weren’t expecting it." 

He added: 

When you make a mistake, own it. Not just own it, but smother it with ownership.

The upside, he explained, is that the event also proved just how safe and secure Chocolate Finance actually is. “We delivered exactly what we promised. Everyone got their Chocolate returns, and anyone who requested a withdrawal received their proceeds exactly as per the T&Cs.”

In total, the crisis lasted a week and then blew over, said de Oude. "Today, Chocolate Finance is back above the SGD 1 billion mark, with more than 100,000 satisfied customers," he added.

Turning a crisis into a brand moment

If the immediate fallout from the incident was painful, de Oude believes the aftermath told a different story. “It was probably the biggest PR campaign in history. Everyone in Singapore knew about us after that. In the end, it gave us reach that money couldn’t buy.”

That paradox - that a crisis, if handled openly, can catalyse awareness and even deepen trust - underpins de Oude's approach to communications. It’s also a playbook other leaders may find harder to adopt, especially in industries still wedded to hierarchy and caution. de Oude's reflections hint at a broader reality for brands today that communication is no longer about carefully managed statements but about immediacy, ownership, and presence.

As he put it, leadership visibility isn’t optional anymore. It’s the message.

No hiding behind corporate communications

For de Oude, the traditional advice that leaders should “stay in the background” and let corporate comms teams take the heat is not just outdated, it’s dangerous.

“Don’t let your comms team handle it for you. If you’re the leader, you need to get in front of the media yourself. You should not hide,” he said.

To him, the optics are secondary. What matters is trust. “Customers can smell when you’re hiding. You need to face the fire directly.”

The emphasis here is not on spin but on credibility. In de Oude's view, authenticity is now a non-negotiable in building consumer trust, especially in industries where confidence can make or break survival. 

The outspoken CEO also didn’t mince words about the limitations of traditional PR and communications. “Nobody cares about a press release.You’ve got to be where your customers are – in social media and everywhere. Traditional PR is just not built for that,” he said.

That bluntness reflects a wider shift in how brands must rethink communications, from a top-down, tightly controlled narrative to a dynamic, real-time conversation with audiences across social platforms, media outlets, and even community spaces like Reddit.

“Reddit is probably the most overlooked PR platform in the world,” de Oude said, pointing out how word-of-mouth and consumer-driven discourse can often outrun anything a company puts out officially.

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