Wealth Investments Paying Off for Singapore's Three Big Banks

  • Banks’ income for wealth management climbed in first quarter
  • DBS, OCBC made acquisitions last year to bolster wealth units
Photographer: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg
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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 Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. offset bad-loan provisions and weaker loan margins to post better-than-expected first-quarter profits. OCBC’s wealth-management revenue surged 70 percent from a year earlier, the firm reported Tuesday.