Which amongst the banking giants aced the Q2 report card?

OCBC is at the top in terms of fee income.

The banking industry report cards for the second quarter of the year showed good improvements in the performance of Singapore big banks, particularly in the area of fee incomes.

According to UOB Kay Hian analyst Jonathan Koh, OCBC is the most outstanding bank in terms of fee income growth, with its 18% growth to $492m. On the other hand, UOB's fee income rose 9% whilst DBS jumped 4%.

In terms of wealth management growth, OCBC still outshined its peers with fees climbing 45%. For DBS and UOB, growths were at 37% and 24%, respectively.

"OCBC benefitted from a doubling in contributions from life insurance. Operating profit from insurance business increased 20% YoY whilst shareholders’ fund investments

increased 8-fold to $51m, from $6m last year," Koh noted.

Whilst OCBC reigned supreme in terms of fee income, DBS took the lead in cost containment.

The analyst pointed out that DBS benefited from investments in digitalisation, leading to a 1% decline in operating expenses. Conversely, OCBC’s and UOB’s operating expenses increased 6% and 7% yoy respectively.

Additionally, DBS and OCBC have better cost-to-income ratios of 43.4% and 41.4%, vs 45.6% for UOB.