OCBC Best In Singapore

Source : TODAY, Friday, September 28, 2007

It is also region’s third strongest

OVERSEAS Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) is the region’s third strongest bank, and the best in Singapore, reported the Asian Banker Research, which provides business intelligence to the financial services community.

In the latest annual rankings of the top 300 banks in Asia, OCBC came in after Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and Westpac Banking Corporation. The bank moved up four positions by edging out four others, among them Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank.

“OCBC is more conservative and its performance and earnings have been very stable over the past few years,” said analyst Benny Zhang from research firm The Asian Banker. “DBS is also a strong bank, but its earnings have fluctuated more in the last few years.”

The top banks in the region performed well last year, accumulating a 7.8-per-cent rise in aggregate profits to $118.2 billion.

“Banks across the region are operating on a much more even keel and have generally stopped displaying the wild fluctuations that were characteristic the last four times we conducted the research,” Mr Zhang said.

There are also more emerging market banks as compared to the previous year — six from China, two from India and one from Thailand.

Asian Banker Research evaluates the banks by their asset size and the strength of their fundamentals, like operational efficiency. These performance indicators show that regional banks are achieving better asset quality, cost efficiency and capitalisation.

Although Japanese banks still made up the majority in the rankings pie, the number has fallen by six this year. Earnings from Japanese banks in the pool is 30.4 per cent, down from the 37 per cent in 2005. The report attributed this dip to low asset growth compared with banks from China and India.

“Overall, Asia’s banks are maturing,” said Mr Zhang.