While the property curbs announced by the Singapore government on July 5 to raise additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) and lower the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio could dampen housing loan growth, RHB is forecasting mid-to-high single digit loan growth pa during FY18-20.
SINGAPORE (July 16): RHB Research is upgrading Singapore’s banking sector to “overweight” from “neutral” on expected widening NIM (net interest margin) despite the property cooling measures.
Assuming further hikes in the US federal funds rate (FFR) and the Sibor (Singapore Interbank Offered Rate), RHB is forecasting DBS and UOB to record an FY20 average NIM of 1.96%, This is sharply higher than the two banks’ 1Q18 average NIM of 1.84%.
