Banks

Banks: MAS yday announced tougher capital rules for Spore banks, raising them to a higher level than those rolled out for Basel III, but the regulator noted that the local lenders were well-positioned to meet the new requirements.
Spore has set its capital adequacy requirements (CAR) 2 % points above what is required by Basel III...

i) Spore-incorporated banks to meet a min Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) CAR of 6.5%.
ii) Tier 1 CAR will be increased to 8% from 6%.
iii) Total CAR will remain unchanged at 10%.
These compare with the Basel III min requirements of 4.5%, 6% and 8% for CET1 CAR, Tier 1 CAR and total CAR.
In line with Basel III, MAS also will introduce a 2.5% capital-conservation buffer beyond the capital-adequacy ratio, to be phased in btwn 2016 - 2019...

OCBC, UOB, DBS and Citi Spore fall under the new rules. MAS wants them to meet the Basel III norms by 2013 (2yrs earlier than Basel III guidelines), and meet the higher MAS min requirements by 2015.
The lenders are already believed to meet the new Basel III standards, as they are among the strongest banks in the world, according to Bloomberg. OCBC, DBS and UOB were ranked 1st, 5th and 6th rptvly...

DBS says it won’t not need to raise fresh capital to meet the new requirements.
OCBC CEO David Conner said: "We expect to be able to meet the MAS revised CAR requirements comfortably without having to raise any additional equity, undertake any rights issue, cut any dividends, or change our strategic plans." At end Mar, OCBC says its est CET1, Tier 1 and Total CAR are 10.8%, 14.1% and 16.9% rptvly.