FILE PHOTO: People walk past a DBS branch in Singapore October 8, 2019. Picture taken October 8, 2019. REUTERS/Feline Lim/File Photo
The city-state’s banks have been under pressure due to low interest rates and weak growth in pandemic-hit markets in Asia, while they also soak up bad loans as regulators prepare to ease conditions for billions of dollars in lending moratoriums. Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said in a statement that he expected a strong economic rebound in Asia from a low base to support mid-single-digit loan growth and double-digit fee income growth in 2021. That would help partly offset the full-year impact of lower net interest margins, Gupta said.
Singapore’s No. 2 ranked lender OCBC said the full economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic was probably still to be felt.