DBS sees 8-per-cent spike in quarterly profit, record for 2011

Feb 10, 2012, 5:37 GMT

Singapore - DBS Group Holdings Ltd, South-East Asia's largest bank, on Friday reported an 8-per-cent rise in its fourth-quarter net profit from the same period a year earlier on loan growth.

The Singapore-based bank's earnings grew to 731 million Singapore dollars (586 million US dollars) while its income rose 11 per cent to 1.92 billion Singapore dollars despite the city-state's gross domestic product shrinking at an annualized rate of 4.9 per cent in the fourth quarter as manufacturing cooled.

For all of 2011, DBS saw its net profit gain 15 per cent to a record 3.04 billion Singapore dollars, pushed by increased business volumes and customer flows that propelled its income to a new high of 7.63 billion Singapore dollars.

Net interest income rose 12 per cent, also to a record of 4.83 billion Singapore dollars. Loans increased 28 per cent to 195 billion Singapore dollars. The increase was led by corporate loans across the region with trade finance accounting for half the growth, the bank said.

DBS has more than 4 million customers and 200 branches in 13 countries.

Read more about DBS