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OCBC and UOB, Singapore’s second and third largest banks, project stronger loan growth in 2025 after exceeding third-quarter profit expectations. This outlook follows recent U.S. rate cuts, though geopolitical uncertainties could still impact markets, said OCBC’s CEO Helen Wong.
Singapore's second and third largest banks, among Southeast Asia's biggest by assets, forecast an improving loan growth environment in 2025, after posting strong sets of third-quarter net profits that beat market expectations.
The forecasts followed the U.S. central bank's interest rate cut by a quarter percentage point on Thursday, the second straight reduction after a bigger half point cut in September.
"I do see that next year loan growth has a bigger potential compared to this year," said Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC.SI), or OCBC, Group CEO Helen Wong at an earnings briefing.
Smaller peer United Overseas Bank (UOBH.SI), or UOB, projected high single-digit loan growth for 2025, versus low single-digit it is seeing for 2024, as it reported a faster-than-expected rise in third-quarter net profit.
Nevertheless, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's proposed policies that include more import tariffs and stricter immigration restrictions could spur inflation and translate into fewer interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
OCBC's Wong said uncertain geopolitical conditions could potentially create market volatilities.
OCBC, Singapore's second-biggest bank after DBS Group (DBSM.SI), said July-September net profit increased 9% to S$1.97 billion ($1.49 billion) from S$1.81 billion a year earlier. That beat the mean estimate of nearly S$1.91 billion from analysts surveyed by LSEG.
OCBC's improved performance was also driven by increased wealth management activity that lifted fee and trading income, in addition to higher insurance income and lower allowances.
Net interest margin was, however, lower at 2.18% during the quarter from 2.27% a year earlier, a trend similar with DBS and UOB too.
OCBC's return on equity rose slightly to 14.1% in the third quarter from 14.0% in the same period of 2023.
($1 = 1.3201 Singapore dollars)
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Gold prices rose above $4,000 an ounce for the first time on Wednesday, fuelled by investor demand for safe-haven assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts.
U.S. shares ended Tuesday in negative territory as investors, cut off from official economic data due to the ongoing government shutdown, looked to alternative indicators and comments from Federal Reserve officials for guidance on economic weakness and monetary policy.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is targeting a $20 billion capital raise linked to Nvidia hardware, Bloomberg News has reported.
Türkiye’s benchmark stock index, the BIST 100, closed Tuesday at 10,814.11 points, up 0.74% from the previous session.
Euro zone finance ministers are set to meet on Thursday to explore ways to boost the development of euro-denominated stablecoins, amid concerns that the fast-growing market could remain dominated by the United States, a senior euro zone official said.
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