Singaporean banks’ lacklustre 2012 performances hint at ongoing recovery
The future of retail financial services in the island-state points to compressed margins and even lower top line growth. March 07, 2013 | ResearchThe assumption that the retail banking business of domestic banks in Singapore has recovered four years after the global financial crisis has been proven wrong. If anything, the banks’ full year financial performances for 2012 have come under pressure again, especially for DBS, UOB and partially for OCBC. This is worth highlighting, in comparison to retail banks in other mature markets such as Hong Kong, South Korea or Taiwan which have generally been climbing out of their weak top and bottom line growth in 2011 and 2012. Retail financial services results for Singaporean banks in 2012 showed mixed outcome For 2012, UOB was not able to leverage on its retail asset growth, which was the strongest in the field, to boost its top and bottom line growth. Since2008, income and profit growths have significantly slowed down for UOB and DBS. What is worrying is that income gains in total S$ terms have also experienced a slowdown, and this was more pronounced with UOB compared to DBS. OCBC had three disastrous years post-2008, mainly caused by internal reshuffling at the retail executive level and a change of strategy, but showed for the first time stronger numbers in 2012 across its asset, income, profit and deposit earnings. It cannot be assumed that the bank’s performance in 2012 can be rationalised as coming from a low or negative growth base the years before, although this is partially correct. A good year, after three years of poor performance, does not necessarily point to an already stabilising business. This instead re... Please login to read the complete article. If you already have an account, you can login now or subscribe/register.
Categories: Private Banking, Retail Banking, SingaporePrivate Banking,retail,Singapore, Private Banking,Retail Banking,Singapore, DBS, UOB, OCBC, POSB
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