Chart of the Day: Check out which Singapore bank has the ugliest return on equity record

But loan growth was strong for all.

According to CIMB, 2Q13 did not turn out as bad as feared. A bond market sell-off did hit OCBC’s GEH earnings but did not show up in the rest of the banks’ P&Ls. The impact was only on AFS.

Loan growth accelerated, margins bottomed and fee income generally held up.

Here's more from CIMB:

Financing trade and US$ loans is increasingly in vogue. Treasury held up as more was customer flow-related activity that comes with trade. We nudged up our CY13 earnings growth forecast for the sector from 1.1% to 2.5%, after raising estimates for UOB.

NII saw upgrades while non-NII saw cuts. Growth is not attractive enough to change our Neutral view; our view is stock-specific. DBS remains our top pick; OCBC is the least preferred.

Loan growth was strong for all (DBS: 5%, OCBC: 7%, UOB: +2.4%), driven by trade finance in varying degree.

As Singapore/ASEAN slows, local banks seem to doing well, funding trade and corporates’ regional needs. The profitability of such activities shows up in fees, which held up well in 2Q. Loan growth guidance was also nudged up.

Margins for all were flat and the banks guided for stable NIMs. The yield curve has steepened but banks are worried that rates can rise further and are in no hurry to take duration risk just yet.