Wealth investments paying off for Singapore’s 3 big banks

(May 9): Singapore’s big three banks have invested heavily in their wealth-management businesses over the past year and the results are starting to show.

Higher income from servicing Asia’s more well-heeled individuals helped DBS Group Holdings, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank offset bad-loan provisions and weaker loan margins to post better-than-expected first-quarter profits. OCBC’s wealth-management revenue surged 70% from a year earlier, the firm reported Tuesday.

The banks have expanded their wealth operations to take advantage of growing affluence in the Asia-Pacific region, where individual wealth surpassed North America for the first time in 2015, according to Cap Gemini SA. Last year, OCBC purchased Barclays Plc’s wealth units in Hong Kong and Singapore, while DBS bought Australia & New Zealand Banking Group’s retail and wealth operations in five markets.

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