Monday, 19 December 2016

BANK OF SINGAPORE SHRUGS OFF BREXIT CONCERNS, EYES LONDON FOOTHOLD


Singapore’s second-biggest bank says Brexit is not all bad news for UK financial services even as the sector braces for a mass exodus of foreign banks.

Bank of Singapore is considering setting up a private bank in the UK, its chief executive Bahren Shaari told the Financial Times, because costs there have fallen thanks to the pound’s sharp drop since Britain voted to leave the EU.

The bank, Asia’s second-biggest homegrown private bank and a unit of OCBC, the city-state’s second-largest lender by assets, has been growing strongly overseas, doubling assets under management in the Middle East in the past three years.

Bank of Singapore has committed to opening a branch in Dubai's International Financial Centre early next year, and London could be next.

Singapore’s second-biggest bank says Brexit is not all bad news for UK financial services even as the sector braces for a mass exodus of foreign banks.

Bank of Singapore is considering setting up a private bank in the UK, its chief executive Bahren Shaari told the Financial Times, because costs there have fallen thanks to the pound’s sharp drop since Britain voted to leave the EU.

The bank, Asia’s second-biggest homegrown private bank and a unit of OCBC, the city-state’s second-largest lender by assets, has been growing strongly overseas, doubling assets under management in the Middle East in the past three years.

Bahren Shaari, chief executive officer of Bank of Singapore.

Bank of Singapore has committed to opening a branch in Dubai's International Financial Centre early next year, and London could be next.

"London has always been expensive as a place to do business. Now it has become 20 per cent cheaper," Mr Shaari said, adding that a presence in London would allow the Singaporean bank to get closer to Middle Eastern clients who frequent the UK capital. "London has history, legal certainty," he added.

He declined to give a timeframe on when the London operation could be set up.
Bank of Singapore's view on London is at odds with that of most of the foreign banks already operating there.



No comments:

Post a Comment