DBS profits up 26% to $1.52b in Q1

Net interest margin rose 9 bps due to a strong Singapore dollar.

DBS Bank’s profits jumped 26% YoY from $1.21b to $1.52b in the first quarter of 2018.

According to its financial statement, net interest income rose 16% YoY and 4% on a day-adjusted basis from the previous quarter to $2.13b. Net interest margin (NIM) rose 9 bps YoY and 5 bps QoQ to 1.83% from higher Singapore dollar as well as US and Hong Kong dollar interest rates.

Fee and commission income jumped 17% QoQ, with wealth management income hit a quarterly high of $331m. It also rose 12% YoY to $744m. “Card fees rose from higher credit and debit card transactions as well as the consolidation of the retail and wealth management business acquired from ANZ,” the bank added.

RHB Research analyst Leng Seng Choon noted that the cost-to-income ratio of 41.6% was “a clear improvement” over last quarter 44.4%, as expenses grew slower than total income.

Meanwhile, credit costs at 20 bps were lower than Q4’s 25 bps. Loans grew 13% over the past year and 2% during the quarter in constant-currency terms as corporate, trade, and consumer loans increased.

Net profit in Singapore jumped 10% to $938m, whilst in Hong Kong, it surged 91% to $436m. In the rest of Greater China, net profit doubled to $74m, whilst in Southeast Asia, it crashed 50% to $22m. For the rest of the world, DBS’ net profit was stable at $51m.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia