UOB

UOB: UOB is making a push into investment banking, an area where DBS has been more dominant versus its local peers, as it seeks to increase fee income and meet the growing needs of companies in the region. SG banks have been faced with limited growth in a mature market and have also been grappling with shrinking margins as rates have stayed low. To grow, they are looking at overseas acquisitions or leveraging their traditional lending relationships to cross-sell other products. The bank set up a dedicated M&A team last year and has also been beefing up its local-currency bond origination and syndication in the region. Since setting up its bond desk in SG 2 years ago, UOB has opened desks in Thailand and Malaysia within the past 1.5 years and has plans to open an Indonesian rupiah bond desk and an offshore renminbi bond desk in Hong Kong. Its push into investment banking has helped to bolster the bank’s fee income. UOB posted a record fee income of S$453m during 1Q13, a rise of nearly 17% from the previous qtr.