Banking News

PARIS (BLOOMBERG) - Societe Generale posted a surprise first-quarter loss after its stock traders were wiped out in the market volatility caused by the coronavirus and the bank set aside 820 million euros (S$1.26 billion) to cover bad loans. Revenue from equities trading and the business of servicing hedge funds slumped 99 per cent to 9 million euros in the first quarter, the French lender said on Thursday (April 30), contributing to a 40 per cent decline at the bank's trading business. SocGen posted a 326 million-euro loss. The results add to a series of se...

SINGAPORE - Bank lending inched down in March from the previous month amid the coronavirus outbreak, as a drop in consumer loans offset a rise in business lending, preliminary data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) showed on Thursday (April 30). Loans through the domestic banking unit, which captures lending in all currencies but reflects mainly Singapore-dollar lending, dipped 0.1 per cent in March from February. Total lending stood at $692.4 billion in March, compared with $692.85 billion in February. It also rose 2.4 per cent over the same mo...

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - DBS on Thursday (April 30) guided that its oil-and-gas (O&G) lending portfolio at $23 billion makes up its single-largest loan exposure to impacted industries made vulnerable by the Covid-19 pandemic, and that it expects further allowances set aside specifically for O&G support services. This comes as the bank reported a 29 per cent fall in Q1 net profit that brought its earnings to its lowest level since 2017. Singapore’s largest bank opened the results season for the local trio with a large bump in allowances set aside to prep...

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - DBS Group Holdings, Singapore and South-east Asia's largest lender, posted its first quarterly profit decline since 2017 as the coronavirus pandemic and oil price slump triggered a spike in loan-loss provisions. Net income fell 29 per cent to $1.17 billion in the three months ended March 31 from $1.65 billion a year earlier, the bank said on Thursday (April 30). That compares with the $1.19 billion average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. DBS last posted a quarterly profit decline in the third quarter of 2017. ...

All three of Singapore's banks are expected to see profit declines for the first time since 2016 as they set aside cash for a potential spike in bad loans stemming from the coronavirus-fuelled economic slump. Net income at each lender probably slid between 21 per cent and 28 per cent in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, according to the average estimates of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. DBS Group Holdings, the nation's largest bank, is seen to report the steepest profit drop when it kicks off the earnings season today, while OCBC Ban...

HONG KONG/LONDON (REUTERS) - Standard Chartered's first-quarter profit tumbled 12 per cent on increased credit impairment and provisions for future loan losses as the coronavirus crisis hammered its borrowers, even as it expects an economic recovery later this year. The emerging markets-focussed lender's more positive tone contrasts with other European lenders that have posted earnings so far, saying it was seeing encouraging signs in China that the recovery could be yet more rapid than that. As a British-based lender focused on Asia, Africa and the Middle E...

FRANKFURT (BLOOMBERG) - Billionaire activist investor Christopher Hohn has called on Wirecard to remove chief executive officer Markus Braun after an independent audit of past revenues criticized the German payments processor for internal "shortcomings." The probe by KPMG was unable to obtain the data needed to verify revenues of 1 billion euros (S$1.54 billion) in transactions with third parties. Wirecard hired the accounting firm in October to look into its third-party partner business as well as operations in India and Singapore following a series of reports...

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Before the accounting scandal and the stock crash and the defaulted loans, Luckin Coffee's billionaire founder Lu Zhengyao was an ideal customer for Credit Suisse Group. "I've had I don't know how many dinners with him in Beijing and he's absolutely the poster child for what we want to do," Tidjane Thiam said at a conference last year when he was still head of the bank. He lauded Lu's relationship with the firm that ranged from private banking to stock sales. "He's a dream client." Luckin's dramatic fall from grace this month blindsid...

INFRASTRUCTURE financing platform Bayfront Infrastructure Management has inked partnerships with 15 global banks in its first month of operations. DBS, OCBC, Citi, Standard Chartered, ABN-AMRO, BNP Paribas, and Santander are among the first banks from which Bayfront will...

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - All three of Singapore's banks are expected to see profit declines for the first time since 2016 as they set aside cash for a potential spike in bad loans stemming from the coronavirus-fueled economic slump. Net income at each lender probably slid between 21 per cent and 28 per cent in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, according to the average estimates of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. DBS Group Holdings, the nation's largest bank, may post the steepest profit drop when it kicks off earnings season on Thursday (A...

HONG KONG (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG) - HSBC Holdings' first-quarter profit nearly halved from a year-ago, missing estimates, after boosting provisions against bad loans as the coronavirus pandemic hits borrowers worldwide. Europe's biggest bank by assets said profit before tax came in at US$3.21 billion (S$4.56 billion) for January-March, down from US$6.21 billion a year ago and below an average analyst forecast of US$3.67 billion compiled by the bank. The bank increased its expected credit impairment charges by a hefty US$2.4 billion to US$3 billion due to the im...

LONDON • Problem loans at some of Standard Chartered's large clients may top US$600 million (S$851 million) as a string of corporate scandals coincides with woes at firms hit by the coronavirus pandemic. NMC Health, the hospital operator that has uncovered evidence of fraud, and Hin Leong Trading, the Singapore oil trader being investigated by police, represent nearly US$500 million of lending for Standard Chartered, according to public filings. Separately, a South African farm bank that the London-based company lends to has defaulted on some of its debt.

TOKYO • The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday ramped up its emergency monetary easing and cut growth forecasts for the world's third-largest economy, as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the globe. After a meeting, shortened from two days to one, the central bank said it would shift to unlimited government bond buying and more than double its capacity to purchase corporate bonds and commercial papers - a move to support Japan Inc's financing as the country grapples with fallout from the virus. The announcement comes as central banks around the world revert to ext...

TOKYO (AFP) - The Bank of Japan on Monday ramped up its emergency monetary easing and cut growth forecasts for the world's third largest economy, as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the globe. After a meeting shortened from two days to one, the central bank said it would shift to unlimited government bond buying and more than double its capacity to purchase corporate bonds and commercial papers - a move to support Japan Inc's financing as the country grapples with fallout from the virus. The announcement comes as central banks around the world revert to extr...

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - Problem loans at some of Standard Chartered's large clients may top US$600 million (S$854 million) as a string of corporate scandals coincides with woes at firms hit by the coronavirus pandemic. NMC Health, the hospital operator that's uncovered evidence of fraud, and Hin Leong Trading, the Singapore oil trader being investigated by police, represent nearly US$500 million of lending for Standard Chartered, according to public filings. Separately, a South African farm bank that the London-based company lends to has defaulted on some of its d...