Singapore Banks’ Profits Increase On Higher Loan Volume

DBS Group Holdings Ltd. (DBS) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC), Southeast Asia’s two biggest lenders, posted an increase in fourth-quarter core profit as interest income climbed.

DBS’s net income excluding one-time gains rose 6 percent to S$802 ($634 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, from S$760 million a year earlier, according to a statement posted on the Singapore stock exchange. Including items such as the sale of stakes in a Philippine bank, profit declined 20 percent to S$973 million. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. reported an 8 percent profit increase for the three months.

The two Singapore banks are tapping growth in overseas markets and from fee-based businesses such as wealth management as they grapple with the lowest lending margins in Southeast Asia. Lenders in the city-state expanded credit by 17 percent last year as economic growth accelerated to 3.7 percent, from 1.3 percent in the previous year.

Bloomberg

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Mingze Wu

Mingze Wu

Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Based in Singapore, Mingze Wu focuses on trading strategies and technical and fundamental analysis of major currency pairs. He has extensive trading experience across different asset classes and is well-versed in global market fundamentals. In addition to contributing articles to MarketPulseFX, Mingze centers on forex and macro-economic trends impacting the Asia Pacific region.
Mingze Wu