Business

Saturday November 7, 2009

News in brief


DBS leads surge in S’pore bank profits

SINGAPORE: DBS Group, South-East Asia’s biggest bank, led a surge in quarterly profits among Singapore’s three listed banks, all of which beat forecasts and are better positioned than global peers for post-crisis growth.

DBS, whose new CEO and former Citi banker Piyush Gupta will join the bank this month, said net interest income was at a quarterly record and fee income at its highest since the onset of the global financial crisis.

The Temasek-owned bank said yesterday its July–September net profit rose to S$563mil from S$379mil a year earlier, and beat analysts’ forecasts for S$480mil, according to an average of six forecasts in a Reuters survey.

DBS saw loan growth of 1% in the third quarter from a year earlier. Quarterly net interest income rose 6% to S$1.1bil and fee and commission income climbed by 14%. — Reuters

Japan trust banks in merger talks

TOKYO: Sumitomo Trust and Banking Co Ltd and Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc said they are in talks to merge, which would create Japan’s largest trust bank with scale to better compete in a crowded asset management industry.

Sumitomo Trust, Japan’s fifth largest bank, and sixth ranked Chuo Mitsui said in separate statements that they were in negotiations and would make an announcement upon reaching an agreement.

Together, Sumitomo Trust and Chuo Mitsui would have 36.4 trillion yen (US$401bil) in assets, surpassing the 21.5 trillion yen held by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust, a unit of top Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. — Reuters

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